Parenting would be a delightful experience if children were not born in a dysfunctional state that had been brought about by Adam’s sin. Acutely aware of this dysfunction, our Heavenly Father made provision for parents to work with Him in addressing this condition. This corrective work begins by fathers teaching their children essential truths about God, His righteousness, morality, character, responsibility, respect for people and civil lawfulness, etc..

The Lord commissioned His followers to ‘make disciples’ of “all the nations” (Matthew 28:19)… A disciple of Jesus is someone who has decided to follow Him with their lives as an imitator of Him (1 Corinthians 11:1). A disciple in essence results from complying with the Lord’s instruction to… “Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you” (Matthew 28:20). At birth, my children didn’t arrive into the world as ready-made disciples of Jesus. Lovely, sweet and delicate in appearance they were, but a little wild and rough around the edges. For the duration of my earthly life, my wife and children and grandchildren are my immediate disciple-making subjects. That’s where my divine calling to “make disciples of all the nations” begins.

The work of ‘smoothing out the edges and taming the wild spirit’ in children is called ‘discipline’. The word discipline comes from ‘discipulus’, the Latin word for pupil, which also provided the source of the word ‘disciple’. The thought of discipline may not sit well in the minds of many of today’s modern thinkers. However it’s more likely that it would if they understood that the word means ‘loving correction’. For example: When my vehicle does not function as it should I take it to my motor mechanic for a little mechanical discipline. If we say that we love our children then we must prove that claim by correcting them whenever necessary. Concerning  discipline, our Heavenly Father says, “Those who spare the rod of discipline hate their children. Those who love their children care enough to discipline them” “Don’t fail to discipline your children. They won’t die if you spank them. Physical discipline may well save them from death” (Proverbs 13:24; 23:13,14).

Disciplining my children, God’s way, were never traumatic times for them, nor for me. ‘Right-living’ expectations for our family and society were clearly spelt-out to our children and modelled by my wife and me. I can’t remember my children receiving more than one good whack on the tail four or five times in their growing-up years. Remarkably, on one occasion, at a social gathering, I remember disciplining my son when he was aged eight through just showing a look of disapproval on my face toward him. My wife and I love our children so much that we we’ve diligently and steadfastly corrected them whenever necessary. We thank the Lord for His parental coaching and mentorship. For my wife and I, parenting and grandparenting God’s way has worked… is working very well!

Best wishes

Bill Joukhadar