“He who spares his rod hates his son,
But he who loves him disciplines him promptly.” Proverbs 13:24

The older I get the more I understand the significance of this verse. The Bible is telling us here that when we do not discipline our children we hate them. Some parents think they actually love their kids by giving them all they want and by never confronting them with their character issues. That is so because they believe the lies of Satan concerning love.

Some parents think that their children must be spared from any uncomfortable emotions. Parents go out of their way to make sure that their children are happy. Happiness becomes more important than building character. That is why we have children in elementary school already walking around with smart phones, kids in high school driving brand new cars, kids demanding privacy, kids telling their parents what they want to do and not asking permission for it, kids without supervision late at night, kids calling adults by their first names, kids yelling at their parents, kids wearing all kinds of inappropriate clothing, kids going out on dates and the list goes on.

Beloved, I am a parent of six children; I can write a book on the challenges that I have faced with them. That experience takes me to the following conclusion: The fact that our children are acting like fools is not necessarily a reflection of our parental skills. However, not doing our job of correcting our children is indeed an awful and clear reflection of who we are as parents. Proverbs 22:6 tells us:

“Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.” NKJV

Beloved we are trainers and life coaches dedicated to prepare our children to face the cruelty and the blessings of life. When we do our job, we give our children something to remember when they get old. I know in my life, the older I get the more I appreciate my parents and the more I am able to see their impact in my way of thinking. However, as I was growing up with them I did not feel this same degree of appreciation…at times, I had no good feeling towards them.

Do you hate your children? Well, if they are in charge, you do! If you are not guiding them, you do! If you have not earned their respect, you do! If they never get mad at you, you do! If you give them all they want, you do! When you do your job as a parent, their love and appreciation for you comes later; they do not have the maturity to understand that you actually love them. We are not called to be our children’s friend; we are called to be our children’s parent.