How to teach discipline to children - without spanking or punishment

Most parents want to teach discipline to their children. However, most of these parents think the only way to teach discipline to a child is to punish them, including through spanking and corporal punishment. This is a common attitude amongst American parents. The fact of the matter is that there is another way to teach discipline - modeling it, alongside attachment parenting.

Discipline is the absence of entitlement, including in an example set by parents. The Greek root word denoting entitlement in the New Testament, and cross-referencing the Tenth Commandment, is πλεονέκτης (Latin: pleonektés) and refers to, officially speaking, want, to the point of imposition. Unofficially speaking, this word refers to the slightest of unattainable want in life. Most entitlement, including in parents, comes from a deserving attitude towards others. You, as a parent, are a depraved and decadent sinner who is deserving of absolutely nothing, and are to be grateful for absolutely everything. This attitude forms a chastened up attitude for children to follow.

Children should follow the example of parents, meaning emulate parents who are always grateful. and never entitled. However, any good example needs to be backed up by something. Punitive parenting drives children far from an example of discipline, and makes them angry and resentful. Attachment parenting is the only way to back up a non-entitled, disciplined example in relation to children. See Colossians 3:20-21 KJV:

Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

The Greek root word translated "obey" is υπακουο (Latin: hupakouo) and refers to secure, vulnerable rest in the love and grace of parents. Children are to rest securely in the sacrifice of parents, just as parent believers rest securely in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Parents are to be extensions of Christ, sacrificing for their children, just as Christ sacrificed for His children, with children being a Godhead for parents to serve, and with children resting safely and securely in the submission of parents, owing absolutely nothing to parents. Parents are depraved and decadent sinners who are deserving of absolutely nothing, from children or anyone else. Respect for parents is to be earned from children, with the burden of proof falling on parents.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages or offenses, namely the slightest of personal offense perceived by a child, including, but not limited to, the slightest of offensive touch or speech perceived by the child, coming from entitlement. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul, and understood in its original context, as a moral statute prohibiting all forms of punitive parenting, including any punishments or controlling demeanor towards children. In the Old Testament, punitive parents were put to death by way of bloodletting, after punishing their children one last time. Parents who punished their children were charged with kidnapping, with "kidnapping" being defined under the Law as the slightest of damages or offenses stemming from hostage-taking - child punishment was seen in biblical times as holding your child hostage merely for things that they did wrong. Paul here was lifting up this legal context to a group of Greek Christians who brought their pagan custom of spanking and punishing children into the church. Paul, contrary to popular legend, was anti-spanking, and opposed any and all punishment of a child.

Children, in biblical times, wore no clothing, at all, until they became adults. Women only wore clothing outside the home, and otherwise wore no clothing, in order to serve their husbands and their children, separately. Mothers served their children by way of providing for them nourishment and sustenance, namely breastmilk (until age 3) and skin-to-skin closeness and intimacy. The core aspect of Christian attachment parenting is skin-on-skin co-sleeping, where mother and child are fast asleep in the nude, with children soaking up the rays of skin-to-skin contact. Children went naked for a reason - so that mothers could easily snuggle them up and cuddle them up, pampering them with skin-on-skin comforting strategies, in total bliss! For the first six years of childhood, time with children was to be spent together. For the last six years of childhood, time with children was to be spent apart, with fathers encouraging bold feats of independence in children, showing any feat of independence with lavish praise and encouragement. "The last six years", today, translates to the teen years. Independence was the goal in biblical times for parents, in a discipled, non-entitled way.

Discipline is best taught by example, with parents being strict with themselves, modeling strictness instead of imposing it. A strict upbringing, in biblical times, usually meant that the parents were strict with themselves, and invited children to be strict with themselves as well. Attachment parenting created a safe place where children could learn discipline and non-entitlement, by trial and error, and with parents being a role model for discipline and non-entitlement. When parents form a secure parent-child bond with their child, their child wants to be like their parents, and thus when parents themselves are discipline, so will children learn to be.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to anger will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them be forever cast into the lake of fire and burning sulfur, which is the second death prepared for Satan and his accomplices! Let them descend into the abyss which is the ever-burning Hell of fire and torment, suffering God's Wrath forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!