April 22, 1997
The Ontario deputy coroner says that at least six children were murdered in recent months while under the care of children’s aid agencies. The same source also says there is a higher rate of child homicide for children cared for by these organizations than there is in the general population.
Children’s aid societies are supposed to protect children but this story reveals there is grave danger in some of that “protection,” at least in Ontario. Perhaps more children would survive if more effort went toward teaching parents effective methods for raising their families.
The most effective teaching comes from the parenting lessons offered by our heavenly Father. Up front, He challenges us to raise our children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” In other words, it is His plan that we care for them like He cares for us.
“Nurture” and “admonition” mean that we instruct and discipline our children with the noble goals of improving their character and of helping them become all that God intends for them. In the Bible, nurture and admonition are never negative actions but are described as positive activities and an important responsibility.
God’s nurture of His children includes care for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs. He corrects us when we go wrong and instructs us in the right way. He also equips us for each responsibility He gives us.
Human parents must do the same for their children, including correction. However, many people object to Scripture’s mention of “sparing the rod” and if we do, we will “spoil the child.” They wonder how a loving parent could use a rod on a child? It seems contradictory to the nurturing command to be like our divine parent.
Actually, in Bible times a rod was used in several ways. One was to count sheep, another to protect them. In the familiar 23rd Psalm, God is likened to a shepherd. If sheep stray into barren or dangerous places, the shepherd uses his “rod and staff” to guide them home. The shepherd never used his rod with intent to harm the sheep, but rather to protect them. The psalmist even says that God’s rod comforts him.
Taken with other passages, it is fair to conclude God encourages parents to use their authority to guide and direct, not to beat their children. A child without guidance, without respect for authority and without standards by which to measure their life, is indeed a “spoiled” child.
Putting a rod in the hand of an angry parent is not what God has in mind either. No one can use this passage as excuse to harm their children. Instead, parents need to untangle their motives. God corrects for His child’s good, not because the child is annoying Him.
Our Father does not admonish us with the thought that, “I will have my own way,” but rather He wants the very best for us. He knows that His way will bring us the greatest joy and lead us in our way to eternal life with Him. Therefore, His discipline is never selfish.
If more parents had that in mind with their children, children’s aid societies, and the abuses within them, would be obsolete.
Showing posts with label nurture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nurture. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Monday, November 2, 2015
No Link? Really? ................ Parables 347
December 8, 1992
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission now concludes there is “a link” between violence portrayed on television and violence in society but it is “not necessarily one of cause and effect.”
Interesting. What do advertisers think about the relationship between their commercials and the effect it has on consumers? Are sales merely a link? Or do commercials have a definite cause/effect relationship to consumer buying habits?
Profit studies and statistics say commercials definitely effect buyers. If they didn’t, why would any company pay media advertising fees? A half-minute spot on a show such as Murphy Brown costs over $300,000 — that is over $10,000 a second! Those kinds of rates are an indication of profits; people do respond to commercials.
But the CRTC is right in not being too hasty to attribute cause and effect. There is always more than one factor involved in issues like human behavior. Psychologists debate whether nature and genetics are the greater influence or is it environment and the way people are nurtured that cause them to live as they do? Many would agree that both factors play a part.
The Bible supports the both nature and nurture theory, but not quite the same way as would psychologists. Jesus, while not commenting on the effects of television violence, did say where violence begins: “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.”
While we were made in the image of God and do have potential to do tremendous good, Jesus is pointing out that sin has marred that image and gives us the capacity for tremendous evil. It is this propensity for sin that causes sinful thoughts, and we all have them.
As for the nurture side of things, God holds us accountable for how we raise our children, how we govern our lives, and how we deal with our sin. We need to recognize that when evil thoughts are given any priority at all, they easily lead to sinful actions. Nurture means we need to avoid whatever feeds that human tendency to sin.
Certainly such factors as our conscience and social pressures constrain evil too. Otherwise we could never live in a sinful world without personally participating in all its sin. Yet if our conscious is dulled by viewing a dozen murders a night on television (tests prove that it is dulled) and television programming begins to exalt violent people, the effects of conscience and social pressure are reduced. That kind of nurture makes it much more difficult to keep sinful thoughts from turning into sinful actions.
The psalmist did not have a television set but he knew this principle long before psychologists tested it. He said, “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me.” Instead, he determined, “My eyes are ever toward the LORD, For He shall pluck my feet out of the net.”
Scripture says “Where there is no vision the people perish” not “no television.” The violence depicted is not profitable for enjoying life as God intended, a life of goodness and peace. We can lobby for better programming yet in lieu of that possibility, the best initiative to take may be in finding our entertainment elsewhere and simply shutting it off.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission now concludes there is “a link” between violence portrayed on television and violence in society but it is “not necessarily one of cause and effect.”
Interesting. What do advertisers think about the relationship between their commercials and the effect it has on consumers? Are sales merely a link? Or do commercials have a definite cause/effect relationship to consumer buying habits?
Profit studies and statistics say commercials definitely effect buyers. If they didn’t, why would any company pay media advertising fees? A half-minute spot on a show such as Murphy Brown costs over $300,000 — that is over $10,000 a second! Those kinds of rates are an indication of profits; people do respond to commercials.
But the CRTC is right in not being too hasty to attribute cause and effect. There is always more than one factor involved in issues like human behavior. Psychologists debate whether nature and genetics are the greater influence or is it environment and the way people are nurtured that cause them to live as they do? Many would agree that both factors play a part.
The Bible supports the both nature and nurture theory, but not quite the same way as would psychologists. Jesus, while not commenting on the effects of television violence, did say where violence begins: “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.”
While we were made in the image of God and do have potential to do tremendous good, Jesus is pointing out that sin has marred that image and gives us the capacity for tremendous evil. It is this propensity for sin that causes sinful thoughts, and we all have them.
As for the nurture side of things, God holds us accountable for how we raise our children, how we govern our lives, and how we deal with our sin. We need to recognize that when evil thoughts are given any priority at all, they easily lead to sinful actions. Nurture means we need to avoid whatever feeds that human tendency to sin.
Certainly such factors as our conscience and social pressures constrain evil too. Otherwise we could never live in a sinful world without personally participating in all its sin. Yet if our conscious is dulled by viewing a dozen murders a night on television (tests prove that it is dulled) and television programming begins to exalt violent people, the effects of conscience and social pressure are reduced. That kind of nurture makes it much more difficult to keep sinful thoughts from turning into sinful actions.
The psalmist did not have a television set but he knew this principle long before psychologists tested it. He said, “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me.” Instead, he determined, “My eyes are ever toward the LORD, For He shall pluck my feet out of the net.”
Scripture says “Where there is no vision the people perish” not “no television.” The violence depicted is not profitable for enjoying life as God intended, a life of goodness and peace. We can lobby for better programming yet in lieu of that possibility, the best initiative to take may be in finding our entertainment elsewhere and simply shutting it off.
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