For the Children

(Proverbs 13:24 KJV)  He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

Our culture likes to talk about how they are doing things for the children.  In reality they are usually using the children as an excuse to advance their own agenda.  Children are just an accident or another tool that is to be exploited.  Few people think about what it means to raise a child.  I know that I didn’t.  I just took it for granted that there would be children and that they would somehow come to adulthood.  I had no understanding of what my parents had put into me and my brothers.

Most of the parents I worked with would tell you they loved their children.  They might even believe it.  That does not make it true.  Love is not a warm feeling.  It is not what people instinctively feel towards babies.  Anyone can smile at a baby and try to get it to smile back.  It is love that repeatedly gets up in the middle of the night to sooth it back to sleep.  It is love that changes diapers with gentleness.  It is love that cleans up the strained spinach that has ended up on the walls.  It isn’t much fun but it is love.  That is where discipline comes in.  It isn’t easy, but it is love.

So?  Love does what is best for the other person.  Hate takes the easy road.