A Cleansing – What I’m Reading

“Parents who discipline their children faithfully and regularly need to know it’s almost certain they still miss things. In other words, in a disciplined household, kids still get away with various forms of disobedience. But two other things follow as a result. Because the kids are disciplined regularly, they know the standard. Because of this they know they got away with something sinful and are consequently bothered with guilt. As this sense of guilt accumulates (either because of elapsed time or additional undetected sins), the result is sometimes that a child begins misbehaving as a means of provoking discipline. Whether the child can articulate it or not, he knows that discipline administered in love has a cleansing effect. Sometimes a ‘minor’ infraction is meant by the child to help deal somehow with the sin he knows has been covered up. This means wise parents will have an eye out for this possibility. They will also take care not to hurry through a time of discipline in a perfunctory way. Good talks can result from studying your children.” (My Life for Yours, p. 119)