This blog started off as an idea to share some pointers with a relative who is pregnant with her 1st baby. At first I thought I had a few points to share but soon...that little note became a blog post...
One of the points in the post was to "not ever hit your kids." And, since that is such a foreign idea to most people I thought I'd try to give her "20 reasons" why...just 20. Well. This is what it turned into. :)
Initially, I turned those "20" points into one blog post on my regular blog. Then something happened while I was in the middle of doing this that was like pouring Miracle Grow on the post and that was...a "pastor" posted a challenge on a Christian non-violent parenting facebook page for those against spanking to give him JUST ONE verse that says "not to spank your child."
It was a ridiculous challenge that soon turned even more ridiculous once everyone started offering reasons and the man responded by taunting and mocking because there is not one verse in the Bible that says, "Thou shalt not spank thy children!" (Just as there are no specific verse telling you not to speed, text while driving, or pick your nose and put it on a stranger's dinner plate at a restaurant...some things don't need specific verses to tell you to or not to do them!)
My mind kept coming up with verse after verse...reason after reason...that would easily answer the question and demonstrate that God does not want us to hit our children if a person really wanted to be open to that answer. So...the "20 reasons" blog post kept growing and growing!!!
(And, #126 explains why I believe people like this pastor are another evidence that spanking is detrimental!!)
Soon, the mile-long post was becoming too hard to keep track of. And, this blog site must not be used to 15,000+ word posts because whenever I'd add to it and "update" it it would do crazy funky things with the formatting. Like I was giving poor Blogspot an anyuerism or something!
SO! I made that one big post into its own blog to make it more manageable...and here you are. :)
The points are all divided up into 20 point portions accessible thru the tabs above^^^.
If you are someone like the "pastor" I mentioned above...who sneers at the worldly liberal idea of not spanking...I challenge you! I understand how you feel because I once believed exactly the same way! And, to change your mind wouldn't mean you are going against God...or that you are bad for being wrong. It doesn't mean you were/are a bad parent if you did/do spank your kids. All of us do things every day that aren't perfect...it's what being conformed (as in a continual process) to the image of Christ is all about. We wouldn't need to be being conformed unless there were things in us that are not like Him "right now."
So, I challenge you, as I "challenged myself" that if you are a true lover of truth and of Jesus...to read every reason I pose here. You may think some are a stretch, and maybe some are. Maybe some are due to me having a very creative and sometimes abstract way of thinking. You might even think that some of the points are just a rewording of another point.
But, before you say, "Yeah, but!" about one reason...read them all. Read all of them. And, if even ONE of them seems valid to you that there is a reasonable doubt that hitting/spanking children is NOT God's design...I encourage you to stop and investigate it further. You may discover that you never realized how little you knew about how to handle discipling your children until you take spanking off the table.
But, before you say, "Yeah, but!" about one reason...read them all. Read all of them. And, if even ONE of them seems valid to you that there is a reasonable doubt that hitting/spanking children is NOT God's design...I encourage you to stop and investigate it further. You may discover that you never realized how little you knew about how to handle discipling your children until you take spanking off the table.
There are many resources online to help you transition to another way of parenting. Your kids will not run wild if you don't spank/hit them!!
But, if you read all...every one...of the reasons and still think that those 5 verses in the Old Testament mean... we're to hit our children with wooden spoons in the name of God...there is nothing left for me to say and I am sorry...
And, while a lot of these reasons can be applied to anyone who is questioning the practice, since I am a Christian, this blog and most of the reasons are aimed primarily at Christians who think The Prince of Peace who died for us wants us to strike our children...
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On a technical note...I am in a constant battle with the formatting. When I alter a post it randomly adds spaces and large text where it should not be. I'm working on it!!!
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Reasons 1 - 20
Click here or choose a tab at the top to get started...
But, if you read all...every one...of the reasons and still think that those 5 verses in the Old Testament mean... we're to hit our children with wooden spoons in the name of God...there is nothing left for me to say and I am sorry...
And, while a lot of these reasons can be applied to anyone who is questioning the practice, since I am a Christian, this blog and most of the reasons are aimed primarily at Christians who think The Prince of Peace who died for us wants us to strike our children...
1 John 4
"By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."
John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
Matthew 15:9
‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’”
Mark 7:7
‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’
On a technical note...I am in a constant battle with the formatting. When I alter a post it randomly adds spaces and large text where it should not be. I'm working on it!!!
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Reasons 1 - 20
Click here or choose a tab at the top to get started...
