Child discipline: Why children need discipline (but not punishment)

Many parents want their children to have discipline. This is a common goal of parents. However, most American parents believe discipline is synonymous with punishment. However, the fact of the matter is that children DO NOT need punishment, but they surely need discipline.

God's Law states in Ephesians 6:4 KJV:

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: bur bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

The first stanza clarifies for the second that discipline should not hurt. The Greek root word translated "provoke....to wrath" is παροργίζο (Latin: parorgizo) and refers here to offenses or damages, 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. It is not enough to stop spanking and punishing your children - you need to ideally avoid the slightest of offense perceived by a child. However, offending children is inevitable in parenting, and thus parents should be willing to give a meaningful apology whenever they offend a child. A provocation to wrath is a specific type of offense stemming from entitlement, with all parent anger being a form of entitlement. However, even refusing to apologize to a child that you upset is a provocation to anger. Usually, all that is necessary is a reassurance of good intent, with statements such as "I'm sorry, but I had to set X limit for Y reasons". However, if you lose your cool with your child, a formal apology is necessary, with statements such as "I apologize for losing my cool with you" and then striving never to make that mistake again. This stanza of the commandment in Eph. 6:4 rules out anything harsh or punitive, while nonetheless clarifying the meaning of stanza 2 of this commandment. This stanza of the commandment in Eph. 6:4 cross-references the Eighth and the Tenth Commandments, with the Apostle Paul here convicting a group of Greek Christians in the parish at Ephesus who brought into the church their pagan custom of patrias potestas, which is a Latin phrase roughly translating to "power to the parent", incluiding the power to impose punitive measures on children, including spanking and other forms of punishment. Paul, contrary to popular legend, was anti-spanking, and opposed any and all punitive treatment of a child in his secular writings. Attachment parenting was banned under Roman law, but the Early Christians did it anyway, obeying God over men.

The second stanza of the verse in Eph. 6:4 spells out proper child discipline, with the first stanza ruling out punitive or harsh measures as an option for discipline. The Greek root word translated "nurture" is παιδεία (Latin: paideia) and refers to here, in context, to a specific type of nurturing, namely of the teaching type. Whenever children were caught in the act of being good, they were given lavish praise and encouragement to keep up the good work. Christian parents in the Early Church looked for behaviors in their children that they wanted to see in their children. When they saw these behaviors, parents lavishly praised and encouraged to keep up the good work. Christian parents then imparted a good example for their children, and backed it up with praise and encouragement, as opposed to punishment and force. Children also needed a religious education, with religion being a human need for children and adults alike. The Greek root word translated "admonition" is νουθεσία (Latin: nouthesia) and refers here to the Christian warning of fathers. Starting at age 6, a Bible was left out for children for children to discover and explore. When children were caught in the act of studying the Bible, fathers praised and encouraged the child's religious development lavishly, with fathers then saying "let me help you make sense of that book". From there, religious instruction came in question and answer format, with children being curious about Scripture, and fathers giving pointers as to the context. The pointers as to the context was all that consisted of a Christian father's warning then. 

It is a myth that fathers in the Bible sexually corrected their crying children. In neighboring cultures, fathers raped their children when they cried too much for their mother's patience, as a form of "hand-me-down-the-slate" gaslighting. However, in the biblical context, mothers had to reassure their children no matter what. The role of the father was to nurture from afar, by way of catching children being good. Fathers usually had a sexual attraction to their daughters, but they were required to purge their unrequited desires through righteous masturbation.

Spanking was a common form of discipline in the Greco-Roman world. In Ancient Greece, the Hellenistic means of disciplining children consisted of a spanking when a child's behavior was "egregious". However, the Early Christians shunned these methods of parenting, and instead practiced attachment parenting. Anyone caught punishing a child was swiftly excommunicated from the Early Christian Churches of God, and was treated as a church infiltrator. 

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to wrath through punitive parenting will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them be cast forever 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, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!