Parents who do not discipline their children early in life often find that when they discipline later, it's too late.

Part 1

“Chasten thy son while there is hope,”
There are at least three thoughts that we should consider when we read these words.

First, our child needs “chastening.”  “Chasten thy son.”  This Old Testament word means “to chasten, discipline, instruct, admonish, …to let oneself be chastened or corrected or admonished, …to discipline, correct, …to chasten, chastise, …to teach”1 (BDB).

As you bring your firstborn2 “bundle of joy” home from the hospital, and you peer into that angelic face, you may be misled into thinking that you have the only child born on earth with no behavioral issues and a heart without the taint of “original sin.”  But the truth is my child is a little sinner, a pagan far from God.  There is “foolishness” in that tiny heart.  Solomon said that “foolishness is sin” (Proverbs 24:9).  My child needs my help!  Happily, there is a cure for his “foolishness,” though painful for him, and often heart-wrenching for the parent.

“Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him” (Proverbs 22:15).

Second, “there is hope.”  The spiritual condition of my child’s rebel heart would be a burden almost too painful for me to bear if there were no help for him.  There are help and hope, it is called the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the “good news!”  This is the only power known on earth that can change the human heart.  As I did, my child needs this same “remake” from the inside out.  He needs Jesus’ forgiveness and cleansing from sin.  BTW, parents, the only hope for junior’s permanent behavioral change begins with his change of heart by God’s gracious work on him through this Gospel.  We parents cannot change our child’s heart, but we can consistently and lovingly teach him, and discipline him toward Christ, with uniform application of the Gospel.  Please remember that ultimately, it is not a parental choice, but the child’s decision to listen to and follow Christ, that will make all the difference in his life.

Third, my child could come to the point in life, at which there is no more “hope.”  When all hope for my child to be and do right is exhausted.  We do not like to think of this possibility, but the scriptures speak honestly here.  This is the reason that “while there is hope,” we talk truth, and we chasten our child to point him/her to Jesus Christ.  He is the “sin-bearer,” and He is the answer to my child’s need.

Why is it so important to be working with our child in both teaching and discipline from an early age?  Come back tomorrow, and we will continue this thought.

1.  Brown, Driver, Briggs.  Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions, the electronic version in eSword.
2.  After learning to deal with the firstborn child, I don’t think any parent has this delusion about their second child or any following these.