How to Shame Your Mother

I’m in the local grocery store after work. My guess is that the other folks in the store are, like me, picking up something for supper. We are not rushing, but we are all in a hurry. Pleasant half-grins as we pass each other in the aisles.

Then it happens; the ear-spitting scream that awakens all of us from our after-work humdrum procession. One aisle over a little 30-inch monster has just cut loose on her mother, screaming for an item she passed by.

I want to throttle the little angel (and then exit quickly). I come around the display at the end of the aisle and enter the aisle of terror.

'Mom' looks like a bomb blew up in her face, a kind of deranged look: frizzled hair, face reddened from embarrassment, eyes about to burst with tears, or just burst. Still wanting to throttle the...
I want to offer to help, but do what?

This wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last. She is lost in her moment of misery and a kind hug with, “It’ll be all right,” would be a lie.

Sure, kids eventually quit screaming. But only because their voices change and they learn to speak. Then their rebellion takes on a different sound and look. It is foolish to think that the rebellious nature of a child somehow just vanishes over time.

I have never heard anyone bemoan the fact that they had applied proper discipline to their child. My heart is heavy from time to time when I see Christians, believers who claim to honor God and hold to his divine instruction, yet who allow rebellion and disobedience in their home. I wonder why some Christians fail to embrace God’s teaching on the discipline of children. I can assure you that I am not being judgmental. The behavior is out in the open for all to see: open rebellion, open defiance, blatant disobedience; yet no form of discipline follows. If parents wait until ‘experience’ teaches the lesson, it will be far too late.

   The rod and reproof give wisdom, 
   But a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother.
   --Proverbs 29:15

The ‘rod’ refers to discipline of a physical nature. ‘Reproof’ refers to discipline of a verbal nature.

Years ago a friend of mine quipped, as we both watched his son disobey, "I was just like that when I was his age...but I turned out ok."

Assuming that my friend really was 'OK' (morally, spiritually), who would think that it was his undisciplined disobedience that made him OK? Rather, it would seem that something or someone had intervened to turned him around. A lack of discipline does not breed discipline; disobedience does not produce obedience. A child who gets his own way..."brings shame to his mother."

May God grant Christian parents the courage to...Believe!


Mark Stinnett