I’m taking a break from the 3rd part of Parenting Principles to answer a question or two.
“My husband and I have realized we have a problem. As we have talked over how we want to discipline our baby we have realized that our experiences are very different and we have very different ideas on discipline. It is especially difficult because although his parents are Christians they are very permissive. My parents are not Christians but they were very strict. The crazy thing is that he wants to be strict and I find myself hating the idea of raising my children like I was raised.”
The short answer to this is that raising your child Biblically will not look like what either of your parents did. Applying Biblical principles to your parenting should keep you from being to permissive on one hand and too harsh on the other. Since the true goal of Biblical parenting is to keep children safe and affect their hearts, helping them to see their need for repentance, redemption and reconciliation, keeping that goal in mind should help you temper your discipline decisions so your decisions are loving, just and firm.
