One woman wrote on her blog that you should treat your children like you treat your husband, only with love and respect, never hitting them...The Bible does make it clear that parents are to train their children. Wives are not told to train their husbands. She makes the point that spouses wouldn't spank each other. I am not sure about that. I bet there are a lot of spouses out there that would love to spank their spouse! ;)
Anyway, the point of this post is that we all have freedom in Christ and the freedom to raise our children the way we feel is best. If you want to spank your children, you should be able to spank them, NOT to be confused with beating them. If you don't want to spank them, don't! The Bible doesn't specifically say to spank them. I think it makes it clear to use a rod in Proverbs, but I know a lot of people disagree with that interpretation.
I happen to think pain is a great motivator. It worked for me. I have four grown children walking with Jesus. None of them can hardly even remember being spanked, because we did it before the age of five. Raising them was easy. Spanking worked great for us, but if you don't want to spank, you don't have to. Your freedom is in Christ, not in a bunch of rules.
What is rather amusing to me is the harshness and critical spirit I have received from some of the comments. My proof is in the pudding. It worked for me. It is funny to me that many of these comments were from young mothers. What about being open to learn from someone who has had success doing it one way? But if they don't want to learn from me, that is okay. They can raise their children how they want. I am not going to judge them if they do or don't spank their children. It is just funny that they want to judge me...
Thankfully, things like that don't bother me. My freedom is in Christ. He is the one I want to please, not them.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. II Corinthians 3:17
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1
Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. I Peter 2:16
Discipline your son, and he will give you peace; he will bring delight to your soul. Proverbs 29:17
