Cindy
03-21-2005, 12:03 PM
My husband and I are on a crusade to have a proper teaching of Biblical discipline take place at our church. The book "Shepherding a Child's Heart" has been making thee rounds. In it Tedd Tripp declares that spanking is a Biblical mandate and if we do not spank it means we do not love our children enough to do the difficult things God has called us to do. My husband wants the book removed from our church because it is false teaching and he does not want to give Satan a foothold. Naturally, I am concerned for the children :heart
Anyways, we had our meeting with the elder and his wife who have led the family ministry. We showed them our studies, but they are not quite convinced. I think we are up against the pride and defensiveness of teachers who have already been using this as a resource as well as parents who "disciplined" their children in this way... There is talk of a meeting with this couple and the two pastors of our church... I need to be in continual prayer over this... (I really need a nail-biting icon here...)
At the same time, I am encouraged as a total of four mothers have now said to me "there has to be a better way!" (to discipline our children, that is...) Last Friday I delivered a packet of information and a book to a young Mom at a playgroup. Apparently, after I left the group, another Mom who was there asked to borrow the info. She saw my husband at church the next day and told him to thank me and said she wanted to know more about TRUE Biblical parenting. "There has to be a better way!" I heard yet again... I really feel that God is encouraging me in this crusade. I do not know if we will persuade the church leaders that spanking is not Biblical, but I do know that God wants to use us to impact the lives of individual families... the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed ;)
Anyways, we had our meeting with the elder and his wife who have led the family ministry. We showed them our studies, but they are not quite convinced. I think we are up against the pride and defensiveness of teachers who have already been using this as a resource as well as parents who "disciplined" their children in this way... There is talk of a meeting with this couple and the two pastors of our church... I need to be in continual prayer over this... (I really need a nail-biting icon here...)
At the same time, I am encouraged as a total of four mothers have now said to me "there has to be a better way!" (to discipline our children, that is...) Last Friday I delivered a packet of information and a book to a young Mom at a playgroup. Apparently, after I left the group, another Mom who was there asked to borrow the info. She saw my husband at church the next day and told him to thank me and said she wanted to know more about TRUE Biblical parenting. "There has to be a better way!" I heard yet again... I really feel that God is encouraging me in this crusade. I do not know if we will persuade the church leaders that spanking is not Biblical, but I do know that God wants to use us to impact the lives of individual families... the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed ;)