Today's Favorite Verse: Proverbs 23:13-14

Today's Favorite Verse: Proverbs 23:13-14

"Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.

Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell."

I remember growing up being swatted with a lilac switch. I think it was very effective in making me a disciplined child. While I was raising my children you could no longer swat your child when they misbehaved. Maybe that's why we have a generations of disobedient children and adults? I was curious on what I could find given by the church on this. The following is by George A. Smith in 1872.

"In my boyhood discipline was enforced by the application of the blue beech switch. The blue beech does not grow in this country, but many schoolmasters in former times in New York and New England were provided with these tough limber switches, and I have seen them used among the scholars with fearful effect, and in cases where I am satisfied the pupil was less at fault than the preceptor. I know they say Solomon declared if you spare the rod you will spoil the child. My opinion is that the use of the rod is very frequently the result of a want of understanding on the part of a spoiled parent or teacher in guiding, directing and controlling the feelings and affections of children, though of course the use of the rod in some cases might be necessary; but I have seen children abused when they ought not to have been, because King Solomon is believed to have made that remark, which, if he did, in nine cases out of ten referred to mental rather than physical correction. I will, however, allow other men who have taught school, as a profession, to offer their suggestions on these subjects; but I will say that I have known Professor Dusenberry teach a hundred scholars—the wildest, roughest boys we had in a frontier town, and never lay a stick on one of them. He has done it term after term, and the children liked and respected him and would mind him, and there was nothing on the face of the earth that seemed to hurt their feelings more than to feel that they had lost the confidence of their preceptor. This was simply the result of cultivating reasoning powers in the minds of the children, and I am happy to say there are many such teachers now in Utah.

(George A. Smith, "Our Schools", JD 14:371)

This made me look over the chapter again and I noticed in verse 12 the following. "Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge." I don't think I ever noticed that this comes before correcting a child. The heart must be right, it must have understanding and knowledge regarding what was perceived to be wrong, before correcting the child. The problem today isn't a lack of disciplining a child with a good swat on the bottom. It's the lack of parents having the heart to instruct and listen to their children.

Day 2810