Gratitude: How to teach gratitude to children - without spanking or punishment

Many parents want to teach their children gratitude. This is a common desire for parents in terms of instruction. Most parents think that the only way to teach children gratitude is to punish them or deprive them of "privileges". The fact of the matter is that gratitude can be taught without spanking or punishment. First, YOU have to be grateful, for everything, including your own child.

Entitlement is the opposite of gratitude. The Greek root word denoting entitlement in the New Testament, and cross-referencing the Tenth Commandment, is πλεονέκτης (Latin: pleonektés) and is defined as, officially speaking, want, to the point of imposition. Most entitlement comes from a deserving attitude, where you believe that you deserve things in life. You, as a parent, are a depraved and decadent sinner who is deserving of absolutely nothing, from anyone, including your own child. When you are fully convicted of the fact that you are deserving of absolutely nothing, you become grateful for absolutely everything, as everything in life becomes a gift to cherish, including your very existence as a human being. Be grateful even for your existence, dear parents, as your existence exists on shaky ground. Gratitude is being happy for whatever you have, preferrably everything you have, knowing you deserve none of it.

A grateful example is one that shows itself as grateful to children. Ideally, the Christian should have their hands wrung behind their back. It is good to impart a grateful example upon your child. However, every good example needs something to back it up. Punitive parenting does not work, as it alienates children from the faith, and drives them away from the Truth. Attachment parenting is the only way to go, as attachment parenting is a time-honored and time-tested form of parenting. 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 in the family home, dutifully and selflessly submitting to children as they would to God, expecting absolutely nothing in return, with children resting safely and securely in the submission of parents. Parents are to submit to children as their enemy, from beneath yet from above, revering and fearing children as vulnerable extensions of God. 

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 the child, including, but not limited to, the slightest of offensive touch or speech perceived by a child, stemming from entitlement. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul, and understood in its original context, as a moral statute prohibiting all 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 they did wrong, thereby treating your child as a quartered slave. Paul here was lifting up the Law in order to convict 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 absolutely no clothing, at all, until they became adults. Women only wore clothing outside the home, and otherwise went in the nude, in order to serve both their husbands and their children, separately. Mothers served their children by way of providing for them nourishment and sustenance, namely attachment parenting items such as breastfeeding and skin-on-skin comfort. Children, up until age 6, never left the side of mothers, ranging beside her when at home, clinging to her when crying or upset. Mothers, when children were crying or upset, held their children close to their bosom in skin-on-skin mammary closeness, reassuring children with the phrase "this too shall pass". When out and about, children were worn on the bosom and back of the mothers by way of being wrapped in swaddling blankets, with children being offered to suckle the teat of mothers if they were milk-hungry. By night, mothers co-slept next to their children in order to form a secure attachment to them, and also in order to protect them from all predatory threats, including the sexual entitlement of fathers. Fathers also formed a secure attachment to their children by way of witnessing skin-on-skin closeness and intimacy between mother and child, and then wanting in by way of a sexual attachment to the child. Fathers imprinted on their own children through masturbatory orgasm. Fathers were a prized playmate to their children, with the relationship between father and child being playful and silly, in an encouraging way. Mothers were the more serious of parents, but in a warm and gentle way.

Gratitude is a good example to impart onto children. Gratitude is being happy with what you have, knowing that you deserve none of it. This can be modeled to children by YOU as the parent taking up a grateful attitude towards life, and then forming a secure attachment with your child. You may find that children can be ungrateful at times, meaning they want what they want when they want it. The idea is to let them take that attitude, as then they will grow out of it. Give children most of what they want, and everything they need, while taking a grateful attitude yourself. They will then want to be like you, and then inherit your grateful attitude.

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!