PERMISSIVE PARENTS

by William MacDonald

Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.  Proverbs 19:18

     We live in a permissive society. Especially in the area of child/training, people listen to the advice of psychologists and sociologists rather than to the teachings of God's Word. Many adults who were brought up by parents who dared to discipline them, determine to allow their children freedom and self-expression. What are the results?

     Such children grow up with a deep sense of insecurity. They are misfits in society. They find it difficult to cope with problems and troubles, and seek release in drugs and liquor. A few years of discipline would have made the rest of life much easier for them.

     Not surprisingly, they live undisciplined lives. Their personal appearance, their living quarters, their personal habits all betray their careless and disorderly mindset.

      They are satisfied with mediocrity or less. They lack the drive to excel in sports, music, art, business and other areas of life.

     Such children become alienated from the parents. These parents thought they would win the undying love of their children by withholding punishment. Instead  they won the hatred of their offspring.

     Their rebellion against parental authority extends to other areas of life - to school, employment, and government. If their parents had only broken their wills early in life, they would have made it easier for their children to submit in other areas of life.

     Rebellion spreads to moral standards set forth in the Scriptures. Young rebels flout the divine commands concerning purity and abandon themselves to loose and reckless living. They manifest a deep loathing for whatever is good, and a love for whatever is unnatural, obscene, and hideous.

     Finally, parents who fail to break the will of a child through discipline make it harder for that child to be saved. Conversion involves the breaking of the will in its rebellion against the rule of God. That is why Susannah Wesley said, "The parent who studies to subdue self-will in his child works together with God in the renewing and saving of a soul. The parent who indulges it does the Devil's work, makes religions impractical, salvation unattainable, and does all that in him lies to damn his child, soul and body, forever."

from ONE DAY AT A TIME (available from Gospel Folio Press)