Parenting 102 - Discipline

David was a GREAT man who loved God, but he made some terribly unwise decisions in his life, and several of those unwise choices involved his children.

David, despite his tremendous leadership skills on the battlefield, and as king, neglected to lead in his home...with disastrous results.

First was his unwillingness to discipline his oldest son Amnon when he raped his half-sister Tamar. Not only did he not stick up for his daughter but he refused to deal with Amnon, which caused a deep bitterness to fester in Absalom (her brother) his other son.

Next came Absalom's murder of his brother Amnon in retribution for his sister Tamar. But once again, David did nothing except refuse to see him.

This then led to the attempted coup by Absalom which ultimately led to his death.

And finally we have Adonijah attempting to appoint himself king behind his father's back despite the fact that David had made known that Solomon was to be the next king.

David's mistake wasn't that he didn't love his kids. His mistake was the same mistake that many of us make as parents. We love our kids but because we desire our children's affection and/or approval, and we hate conflict, we choose to ignore issues and just hope they work themselves out or just go away.

This is the real issue. We lose sight of our goal as parents. We forget that our goal isn't to gain the affection and approval of our kids. We're not meant to be their "friends". We have been given the responsibility to be PARENTS, which means our goal is to raise self-sufficient, responsible adults who will in turn raise self-sufficient, responsible adults of their own. But to do that REQUIRES us to DISCIPLINE our children when they do wrong. The method of discipline may vary depending on the offense, but we must DISCIPLINE non the less.

Parents...David's lack in parenting his kids led to disaster. Don't make the same mistake...there is too much at stake.

Created 7 months ago