How to teach your child thanksgiving - without spanking or punishment

Thanksgiving is just a day away. Thanksgiving is more than just getting full on turkey and stuffing. It is about giving thanks to the Lord for everything we have, for we deserve absolutely none of it. Thanksgiving is named after one of our founding Judeo-Christian family values - thanksgiving. This word is still used in fundamentalist circles, with me being a Christian fundamentalist in admitted format.

Teaching children thanksgiving requires a specific, thankful example for children. Thanksgiving and gratitude do not come in a vacuum. True thanksgiving for the good things in life comes from Christian love. The Greek root word denoting Christian love is αγαπαο (Latin: agapao) and refers to prioritizing your neighbor first, and yourself last, to the point of dutiful and selfless submission to your neighbor, expecting absolutely nothing in return. True Love does not come from pride or desire, but from a place of fearful conviction, where you are convicted that you are a depraved and decadent sinner who is deserving of absolutely nothing in life. This leads to the sinner paying due penance for their sinful nature by serving their neighbor. Children were also considered your neighbor in biblical times. The phrase "expecting absolutely nothing in return" implies not expecting anything, period. When you take an undeserving attitude, and expect nothing from anyone, you become grateful and thankful for everything. As depraved human beings, we are deserving of absolutely nothing, and so we should be thankful for absolutely everything, because God can take away anything and everything that we own, as well as the world that we live in - He has that power. Children are watching our every move, so if you want them to be thankful this Thanksgiving, give thanks yourself around them. Perhaps invite them to pray for thanks to the Lord for everything.

Every child needs a good example in terms of thanksgiving. However, any thankful example needs to be backed up by something. Punitive measures such as spanking and punishment don't work - they create resentment, and ultimately drives children away from the good values that this country was founded on. Attachment parenting is the only way. Attachment parenting creates a safe place for children to absorb the Judeo-Christian values of thanksgiving in their environment, at their own pace. It says in 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 in the family home, 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. Children are to rest safely and securely in the presence of parents, following them like goslings follow their mother goose.

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 a child, coming from entitlement. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul, and was understood in its original context, as a moral statute prohibiting all forms of punitive parenting, including any punishments or controlling demeanor. 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 in biblical times 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 a child hostage merely for things they did wrong, thereby treating a child as a quartered slave. Paul here was lifting up this legal context to a group of Greek Christian parents 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 were adults. Women only wore clothing outside of the home, and otherwise went in the nude, 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 next to each other, with the child soaking up the rays of skin-to-skin contact, in total bliss! Children went naked for a specific reason - so that mothers could cuddle them up and snuggle them up whenever they were crying or upset, and for easy skin-to-skin contact come nighttime. This secure bond translated onto the father automatically. This sort of parenting led to a secure parent-child bond that lasted for a lifetime...The context contained herein is applicable today just as it was in the days of old, albeit with some tweaking. 

Fathers usually developed a parent attraction towards children of the opposite sex, meaning usually daughters. This attraction should be dealt with by following the sexual thoughts about your child to the end using masturbation (pro-social fantasy). In the Early Church, most adult men were pedophiles towards their own children, usually of the abstinent sort that instead masturbated to sexual thoughts of their child. This improved the relationship between father and child...The context contained herein is applicable today just as it was in the days of old.

Attachment parenting is the way towards winning your children over to your values. You don't beat good values into children. You win them over to your values by forming a secure attachment with your children. That gives them a safe place for them to absorb good Judeo-Christian family values, including the value of thanksgiving, at their own pace. Attachment parenting makes children want to be like you, and so when you value being thankful as a family value, and practice it yourself, so will your child. Children see every choice you make, and observe every attitude you come to, and so behave when around children, and take a thankful attitude. Then, attachment parenting should win over your children to those good values that you model.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke children to anger through punitive parenting 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!