Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
Foolishness is iniquity and perversity naturally bound in the heart of a child from an early age, which must be faced, overcome, and rooted out before it becomes fixed habit, and which correction can drive far away. Overindulgence that lets wrong habits form and puts control in the child's hands to rule and to treat everything in the house as his plaything to do with as he pleases is cruelty that injures him. Discipline must be prompt, wise, firm, decisive, and steady, holding children to what has been required without releasing them, without carelessness from absorption in other things, and without weariness when they forget and do what was forbidden, and disobedience must be punished.
The rod of correction may sometimes be necessary when milder measures fail, but it should be avoided when possible and used only after other ways of correcting have been tried. Correction must be given in love for the child's good, not to satisfy anger or to assert arbitrary authority, and must be firm and watchful without losing temper, scolding, or striking in passion. A parent should show sorrow, pray with the child, and seek the child's repentance, which may make use of the rod unnecessary. Losing temper forfeits the respect no father or mother can afford to lose, and a passionate blow teaches the child to quarrel and fight.
The aim of correction is to eradicate evil lest the soul be lost, to impress that uncorrected faults bring unhappiness and displease God, and to lead the child to submit the will to God. Parents stand in the place of God to their children and must stay on guard. Iniquity left uncorrected can become so established from an early age that the boy in this case resisted every effort to reform him. Correction in youth could have restrained later misconduct: if Sister Craig had felt the rod of correction instead of receiving unwise sympathy and indulgence, her husband would not now be in such great peril.
Foolishness is iniquity and perversity naturally bound in the heart of a child from an early age, which must be faced, overcome, and rooted out before it becomes fixed habit, and which correction can drive far away. Overindulgence that lets wrong habits form and puts control in the child's hands to rule and to treat everything in the house as his plaything to do with as he pleases is cruelty that injures him. Discipline must be prompt, wise, firm, decisive, and steady, holding children to what has been required without releasing them, without carelessness from absorption in other things, and without weariness when they forget and do what was forbidden, and disobedience must be punished.
The rod of correction may sometimes be necessary when milder measures fail, but it should be avoided when possible and used only after other ways of correcting have been tried. Correction must be given in love for the child's good, not to satisfy anger or to assert arbitrary authority, and must be firm and watchful without losing temper, scolding, or striking in passion. A parent should show sorrow, pray with the child, and seek the child's repentance, which may make use of the rod unnecessary. Losing temper forfeits the respect no father or mother can afford to lose, and a passionate blow teaches the child to quarrel and fight.
The aim of correction is to eradicate evil lest the soul be lost, to impress that uncorrected faults bring unhappiness and displease God, and to lead the child to submit the will to God. Parents stand in the place of God to their children and must stay on guard. Iniquity left uncorrected can become so established from an early age that the boy in this case resisted every effort to reform him. Correction in youth could have restrained later misconduct: if Sister Craig had felt the rod of correction instead of receiving unwise sympathy and indulgence, her husband would not now be in such great peril.