Discipline and Love

One of the great undercurrents driving so much in today’s youth culture and culture-at-large is the belief that everyone has been given the right to define right and wrong however they might choose. In addition, it is now seen as virtuous to give others the room to do as they please, which is what we now call tolerance. Sadly, these ideas have infiltrated the realm of parenting. Rather than teaching their children God’s life-giving borders and boundaries that are given to protect us from harm and provide for our well-being, parents are giving kids the freedom to choose for themselves what they will believe and how they will live. Many parents do this, they say, because they are motivated by love. But is this really what love is? Parents, the fact is that God’s love does not say “do what you will.” Rather, it says “do what I will.” In the same way, parental love that is good and true does not look at kids and say ‘do what you will,’ but rather “do what God wills”.