Why parents should discipline themselves (and not their children)

Many parents believe children should be disciplined. They assume children need punishment and controlling measures in order to be "raised up well". However, the fact of the matter is that, in parenting, discipline isn't for children.

It says in Ephesians 6:1-4 KJV: 

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, as this is the second commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long upon the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

The Greek root word translated "nurture" is παιδεία (Latin: paideia) and refers to parents being extensions of Christ in terms of being chastened up like Christ was, being disciplined in the way Christ was, being loving and charitable towards children in a sacrificial way, passing down the example of Christ. This means, yes, getting up off of one's laurels and actually spending time with children, on their cue, letting children show you places they want to see, giving them things they want that are benign and available. The Greek root word translated "admonition" is νουθεσία (Latin: nouthesia) and refers to setting limits and boundaries with children, meaning the word "no" or its various variants. The word "no" should be rare in a Christian home, with parents otherwise compromising with children, including giving young children an array of options. This is weighed by the Greek root word "provoke...to wrath" is παροργίζο (Latin: parorgizo) and refers to the moral count of provoking your neighbor to anger, uplifted here explicitly to Christian parents, with their child being their neighbor. This was a command from the Apostle Paul against any form of punishment or controlling attitudes in parenting, meaning parents are not to control their children, but be role models for them.

The Greek root word translated "parents" is γονεύς (Latin: goneus) and refers not to an authority figure, but leadership in the form of bondservice to children, with parents being righteously enslaved to their child's needs, completely beholden to them, totally accepting their child, coming from total submission to children. The Greek root word translated "obey" is υπακουο (Latin: hupakouo) and refers to secure, vulnerable rest and trust in the love and grace of parents, coming from sacrifice for children, in the spirit that Christ sacrificed for children; taking up the cross for children, in the spirit that Christ took up the cross for children; martyring oneself in everything as a parent, expecting absolutely nothing in relation to children, with this leading to rest in the warmth and love of parents. The Greek root word υπακουο ultimately uplifts the traditional Judeo-Christian parenting customs, which are attachment-based in nature. Child nudity was legal everywhere throughout the Bible, and children were traditionally naked to show both their vulnerability and simultaneously their closeness to parents. Children were swaddled to mothers in swaddling bands until age 3, with children sleeping next to mothers at night until adulthood, with mothers and daughters being inseparable right up until adulthood, when children shook off the care of their parents and insisted independence, instinctually and not due to any sort of parental authority being imposed.

Attachment parenting was the norm in ancient Jewish society, including 1st Century Christian culture, with Christian attachment parenting being heavily reliant on the Christian example of parents, meaning parents were their child's first role models. This example was a disciplined one from parents, thus requiring parents to be chastened up and disciplined in their nature, showing charity and shelter for their child's every emotion, welcoming reverent rebellion in terms of children calling the shots as to what they need. America is founded on these Judeo-Christian values. America is unfolding slowly, but surely, with us understanding our values as we understand the great book that guides this country, the Bible. As we understand children's rights issues in the Bible, we understand how we were wrong as a society, just like we were with slavery and Jim Crow, and other atrocities we have committed falsely in the name of Judeo-Christian values. Biblical values are America's values, and nowhere in the Bible, when understood in context to the fullest, does it command striking a child. Young adults were struck as accessories by their father, but only on their way to being executed, and usually for child abuse offenses against the grandchildren, which constituted either incest or kidnapping. Child abuse was a problem then, as in any society, and the authorities were harsh about it, with grandfathers being appointed as accessories by the state, in a family investigation, to administer 40 minus 1 lashes to the errant son who abused his grandchildren. Christ abolished the death penalty on the cross, and the corporal punishment that came with it, thus spanking a child was illegal in the New Testament. Corporal punishment of wives was legal, but only by marital agreement as a form of Christian domestic discipline, and most Christian men reasoned with their wife as well as their children, in a loving and Christ-like way, as any violent outburst was seen as weakness. Holding your wrath to spare your neighbor was the norm.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke children to anger will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them rot and burn in the ever-burning lake of fire and burning sulfur, which is the second death prepared for Satan and his accomplices, as the Christian righteous judges of the world will rid the world of the evil and depravity of pro-spanking parents by flipping up burgers to God! Repent, parents, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!