Parenting From The Source

Consequences for disobedience are hard lessons. A seven-year-old neighbor had been told repeatedly to put his bike in the garage at night. His dad would notice it on the lawn and put it away. One night, his father failed to see it, and it was stolen. At such a young age, it would be a [...]

Goodness, a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), can also be called righteousness or moral excellence. What does that look like in a child, and how do we guide our children to embrace goodness? Goodness at Age Three Emma and Madison, three-year-old friends, are playing with their dolls while their mothers visit nearby. Emma reaches [...]

Improving child behavior depends on the child’s learning that there will always be consequences for his or her actions. They either happen naturally or are created by parents to fit the misbehavior.

The young man sat in my high school counseling office. “I’m grounded for the rest of the year,” he moaned. “I won’t even get to enjoy being a senior. What am I going to do?” How Parents Typically Punish Teens As a counselor, I learned a couple of things about how parents punish their kids. [...]

The room was eerily quiet considering that it held over twenty preteens. The young man facing off against me was tall enough to look me straight in the eye when he declared, “You can’t make me.” My teacher training took over, reminding me that confrontations should never take place in front of other students. I [...]

Are you waiting for your child’s moral maturity to develop about the time he or she is eighteen? That’s the age of legal maturity and often physical maturity, so it seems logical that moral maturity would be completed about that same time.

In my last post, I wrote about first-time obedience with older children. I said, “Consequences for disobedience must be delivered every time.” That sounds great, but I hear from parents all the time that they cannot find a punishment that works with their older children. Consequences for disobedience must meet two criteria.

First-time obedience is harder if a child is several years old and accustomed to waiting for his parents to repeat their instructions or correction several times. There were times I let my children slip into the habit of ignoring me the first few times, and it was hard to get back on track.

Do we punish our children, or do we discipline them? Or, do we do both? I hear the words used in interchangeably. “Punish” comes from the root word punier meaning to inflict penalty or pain for an offense. Both “discipline” and “disciple” come from the root word discere which means to learn. Christ’s disciples learned from him and [...]

The Marines made the news this week for reasons less than honorable. I have a high opinion of Marines. They embody the best of the best. This week four of them (actually five since someone took the video) did something less than honorable. There will be consequences that leave a lasting mark on these young [...]