Shepherding a Child's Heart

Benefits of Learning to be Under Authority
God has promised that children who honor and obey will have
things go well for them and will enjoy long life on the earth.

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Obviously, the child who submits to parental authority is richly
blessed. I grieve to see children who were never taught these
principles knocked about by life because of their rebellious,
unsubmissive behavior. By contrast, I delight to see parents
internalize these principles and raise their children with a healthy
respect for and submission to authority. The result is children for
whom it does go well. They are respected by their teachers. They are
given special opportunities. They are esteemed by their peers in the
Christian community. They grow in spiritual insight as they submit to
God and walk in wisdom’s path. Genuine submission to godly
authority bears good fruit.
The child trained in biblical obedience is better able to understand
the gospel. The power and grace of the gospel is most deeply
understood, not by those who never face their biblical duties, but by
those who do. Knowing our native resistance to authority, knowing
our inability to do what God has commanded, we are confronted with
our need for the grace and power of Jesus Christ. Paul’s prayer that
God would work by his Spirit in the inner man in great power takes on
relevance. It is only that power that can get your children back to the
circle in which God protects and blesses.
What are the secondary lessons of biblical discipline? Even
though the child will not be able to fully appreciate the importance of
submission, training him to do what he ought, regardless of how he
feels, prepares him to be a person who lives by principle rather than
mood or impulse. He learns that he cannot trust himself to judge right
and wrong. He must have a reference point outside himself. He learns
that behavior has moral implications and inevitable outcomes.