To Train Up a Chile Author:Michael & Debi Pearl We live in a horse and buggy community where someone is always training a new horse. When you get into a buggy to go odown a narrow, winding, state highway filled with eighteen-wheelers and logging trucks, you must have a totally submissive horse. You can't depend on whipping it into submission. One mistake, and the young men are again making... more » several new pine bowes and digging six-foot deep holes in the orchard.
The parents who put off training until the child is old enough to discuss issues or receive explanations find their child a terror long before he understands the meaning of the word. A newborn soon needs training.
Training is a technique that always works on every child. To neglect training is to create miserable circumstances for yourself and your child. Many of you have bypassed the training and expected the discipline alone to effect proper behavior.
Disciplinary actions can become excessive and oppressive when the tool of training is set aside and one looks to discipline alone to do the training. I have abserved proud, stern fathers ruling their house with a firm hand, an dmaking sure everyone knows it. The rod is swift to fall, and especially in the presence of company. The children tremble in his presence, fearing to incur his displeasure. I have often wondered why, if he is so firm and faithful to gain obedience, that he has not achieved it before entering the public arena. I am impressed, but not in the way he hopes.