Almost one third of American and Canadian parents say their methods for disciplining their children don’t work. That was the finding of a survey of 5,000 parents reported on in January 2007’s Clinical Pediatrics.
I’ve seen these parents at the local grocery store. Their repeated threats—“If you do that one more time …” “Did you hear me?” “For the last time, stop it!”—float and pop like tiny bubbles. Many of these parents have simply given up, leaving their children in charge.
Why don’t their methods of discipline work? What about you and me—do our methods work?
After time-outs and removing privileges, the third-most common form of discipline, according to this survey, is yelling at the child. This is a sign of parents who never taught their children to listen—parents who punish only when their children get on their nerves.
They have fallen into one of the easiest parenting traps: lack of consistency and follow through. The Plain Truth About Child Rearing, put out by the Worldwide Church of God under Herbert W. Armstrong, calls this “perhaps the most common of all parental failings in administering just and loving discipline.”
That booklet reads, “To punish for an infraction one day, and then to allow the same infraction without punishment the next day is totally confusing to a child. … Frequently, parents will say, ‘But I do spank him,’ and then go on to argue, ‘But it doesn’t seem to do a bit of good!’ Always, at the root of a statement such as this is discipline that is totally ineffective because it is not being done consistently.” (more…)
Remove from a library shelf any volume on ancient man. Examine its opening chapter. What will you find? Expressions as: “it is thought,” “there appears to be some basis for believing,” “it has been suggested,” “it may be presumed,” “one may safely assume,” and “others are of the opinion” — just to mention a few.
Herbert W. Armstrong was the Pastor General of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). Those studying the Bible with a critical eye recognized him as restoring long lost biblical truths. He stood against traditional Christianity’s error and taught the plain truth of the Bible. Now he’s dead and his successors have effectively dismantled any semblance to what was originally, and correctly, taught.
The Apple Of God's Eye 
