Paul J. Bucknell

Understanding Correction | Avoiding Light | Catch the Sin | Control the Child | Correct the Child

What would be considered the most effective and caring form of discipline for a disobedient child? And why?

Have you ever uncovered your child’s sin? Its just like turning a rock over and shocked by all the creepy crawly things underneath! We never expected what we found. One time I caught our son lying. He professed to be a Christian. He knows lying is wrong. So what should we say to him?

I’d like to share what I said to him. I realize there are many ways to discuss this kind of issue, but my chief concern is that in many situations we do not handle it quite right because we do not think about it rightly. Let me focus on some important issues by the way I explained it to my son.

Understanding Correction

God wants pure hearts so that we can be best of friends with Him and others. When we do what is right, then we can be transparent. This is the same for God and people. When we have nothing to hide, no ulterior motives, we can have the best relationships possible. We can be our real selves with nothing to hide.

When we go against God’s ways, part of our heart is darkened. I described it to my son as a pocket of sin in our heart.

When we sin, the sin doesn’t just go away with time. It will stay hidden in our pocket like a heavy rock until we empty it. Have you ever cleaned out a pocket of a child that had been collecting things he discovered?

It can be rather grotesque, but still the pocket needs cleaning. The biblical teaching that highlights this is John 3:19-21.

And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God (John 3:19-21).

Our hearts reveal what we love. If our deeds are evil, then we will favor the darkness. We love the darkness because our deeds are evil. Man is ensnared in a bind that he cannot on his own escape.

By correcting our child, we are associating pain and displeasure with the wrong choices he makes. We are making it so that he is not blind to the consequences of the wrong decisions that he makes. As a young child playing near the street, so the child making foolish decisions sometimes cannot see the terrible consequences of his/her decisions.

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The way we relate with others affects our relationship with God. I showed my son what happened when we leave that sin, all hidden away, in our heart’s pocket.

The way we relate with others affects our relationship with God. I showed my son what happened when we leave that sin, all hidden away, in our heart’s pocket.

=> Continue reading : Avoiding Light (2/5)

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Biblical Foundations for Freedom ( BFF )

Rev. Paul J. Bucknell