Orlando, FL 2007: Look! Even little fur balls full of rambunctiousness can lie still and contemplate life and its many options. Surely parents underestimate their children while overestimating themselves.

From Trent Ling:

Children under age 12 must especially heed good parental instruction, and preferably, without a tussle, hassle, or endless debriefing.  These ages are particularly youthful and full of folly, making listening imperative.  Seemingly straightforward, these instructions are routinely mangled by overwhelmed and nearsighted parents, and opposed by willful and undisciplined children.

Four elements come into play in this scenario.  First, the parent must be “Right and Unyielding” (a preached and recorded audio message available upon request via the Contact Page).  Wrong parents insisting upon adherence and then disciplining rightful objectors are surely the worst.  So start by being right.  Second, there must be an expressed command or direction.  Neither mechanical nor robotic, real parents must, in the flow of life, simply express and exhibit a nurturing leadership and must thereby elicit hearing and complying from their offspring.  Third, should listening and heeding not come normally or naturally, children should simply be told:  “You’re Not Listening.”  These must be understood as code words marking the penultimate step before physical discipline commences.  Fourth, a failure to listen shall result in physical discipline (i.e., a well-calibrated spanking in accordance with Proverbs 22:15) to give the child a chance to reconsider and take advantage of the ongoing call simply to listen to sound and unyielding instruction.

This four-step scenario should help parents easily sidestep the 160 varying ways of derailment.  Be right, express direction, warn with “you’re not listening,” and deliver physical discipline.  Thereafter, start the four steps anew and watch the children heed direction and give much greater ear to the “you’re not listening” alarm.  Even if it takes a few rounds or twenty rounds to train the child, parents must remain diligent in being right, expressive, warning, and disciplining.  These instructions cannot fail parents in discharging their duties with children under the age of 12 (who by their age alone remain wholly subject to their parents).  For people of ages 12 and greater, God himself takes on a more prominent disciplining role (another topic for another time).

By ignoring or haphazardly implementing this four-step scenario, parents will find themselves giving long-winded and tangential explanations to their little tikes who have little wherewithal to understand the meandering circus of conversation.  Distractions, runaway emotions, and great cloudiness will thereby envelop what already should have been a resolved and advancing episode.

This instruction assumes parents have gotten their acts together, no longer pursue personal agendas, are not overwhelmed with their own lives, and have taken on Parenting 101:  Be a Disciple.  Otherwise, parents will be wrong and children would be wise at least to take them with several grains of salt.  Good, right, and easygoing parents will not fritter away the sound advice in this letter.  Rather, they will see the Bible come true in their households while enjoying the fruits of living to its specifications and its timeless wisdom.

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