Crying: Why crying is not bad behavior

Many parents have had to deal with it. Their child cries. Most American parents think that a crying child is deserving of punishment. This is a common attitude amongst American parents. Most American parents punish crying in children, or at least reprimand it. The Bible prohibits all forms of punishments, reprimands, or controlling demeanor towards a child, including a crying child.

Crying is remedied best by the Christian doctrine of mutual submission, where children surrender in the loving arms of parents. 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 submission of children. Children are to rest securely in the sacrifice of parents, just as parent believers are to rest securely in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul to lift up the customary law that commands a secure attachment between parents and children in the family home. This secure attachment comes from parent submission, where parents are to submit to children as their enemy, from beneath yet from above, expecting absolutely nothing in return.

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, stemming 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, reprimands, 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, 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 their children into the church. Paul, contrary to popular legend, was anti-spanking, and opposed any and all punishment of a child in his writings.

Children have cried in all time periods, across cultures. In biblical times, crying was not seen as bad behavior, but as communication of vulnerable needs. For the first 6 years of a child's life, children were in constant closeness with mothers, meaning that wherever the mother went, so did the child. Mother and child were in a state of birth nudity, where mother and child were naked next to each other, in skin-on-skin closeness and intimacy. 

Mothers, when children cried, cooed and picked up the child, cradling the child before co-snuggling next to him/her. The cooing was intended as a primal way of validating the child's upset. Children calmed down shortly after their mother cooed towards them, and then the crying went silent. Mothers then co-snuggled next to the child in skin-on-skin comfort and sustenance.

Mothers, when out and about, swaddled their children next to their bosom in swaddling blankets, perhaps breastfeeding their child in public when summoned to by their child. Children, once swaddled, were tucked underneath the loose-fitting, revealing dress of mothers that resembled an apron. The swaddling blankets were tied to the left breast, then tied further across the dot to the right leg of the mother. When children cried while swaddled, mothers simply held them closer to their bosom in mammary closeness, cooing in the process. 

Under Christian law, failure or refusal to comfort or reassure a crying child, including when they hear the word "no", is a provocation to anger. Punishing or reprimanding a child for crying is also a provocation to anger. Trying to punish or reprimand crying comes from a controlling place, which is entitlement. Whenever a child perceives entitlement, that is child abuse by the biblical standard. 

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to anger through punitive parenting will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them forever be 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 day and night forever and ever! Repent, fot the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!