[Beauty4Ashes]

This is what I am thinking about posting on another board with Pearl lovers on it. Please tell me what you think.

I just saw this link today.
http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/418676.html

It is such a tragedy, a young child's life ended, for what? And other children being abused too by someone who was supposed to love them. I remember the first time when I read To Train up a Child. My older son was 13 months old and my baby was one month old. I was having difficulties adjusting to having a newborn and a toddler who was getting into everything. It just seemed extremely cruel to me. My hands are for wiping their tears from their eyes, rubbing their backs while they sleep, playing patty cake, etc...not holding a rod to hit them. It makes me wonder why this book by the Pearls would be held up as the way to produce Christian children par excellence. We as Christians are following after Christ's example. Jesus never hit a child. He never hit his disciples either, even though they were often unruly men who lacked self discipline at times.

I have my moments with my children, ones where I am not kind or patient by any stretch of the imagination, but there is something inside of me which says STOP if I start to do something or even think about doing something which goes against my mothering instinct. How could this woman in essence beat her children and then wrap her 4 year old up in a blanket, so tightly that he suffocated to death? Could she not see the pain or fear in their eyes? I remember the first time I yelled at my older son, how he cried because up until that point, he'd only heard mommy's voice singing softly to him and cooing. I think that I cried even more than he did because I'd scared him and hurt his heart.

It seems that the Pearl's method promises good godly children, the kind that always come when called the first time, the kind that don't embarass you in public, the kind that make your life easier. But at what cost? Is the outward show worth the inner pain that the child suffers? Is it really all about me looking good as a parent?

I guess I am just rambling on and reeling inside about what these poor children suffered. I think that I am going to go hug my babies now and never let them go. It's humbling. I know that sometimes my temper flares and I start to look at my children as the enemy, the ones who won't let me get stuff done around the house because their needs for food, drink, clean diapers, etc. must be met before my own. I cannot bear to think of my own flesh and blood this way. I cannot bear to break their spirits with a rod, just so that my life will have fewer hassles.

Tammy