Discipline – Sunday, August 05, 1945
Delivering a well-earned spanking to a child, with the assurance, “This hurts me worse than it does you,” is a bit of hackneyed humor that has become a stock phrase for use on many occasions. But aside from its well-worn wit, behind it is an oft-experienced truth. Frequently when a conscientious and loving parent finds it necessary to punish a child, there is much of remorse and of anguish on the part of him who metes out the punishment.
It is not easy to discipline those we love. Indeed, for most of us it is not easy to discipline anyone. On the other hand, there are some who are able, too readily, to convince themselves that it is their duty to be harsh, and who enjoy too much their duty. Something goes wrong, and without knowing causes and without fixing responsibility, there follows the hasty impulse to assume that punishment is due someone and to administer it quickly and thoroughly and to give it investigation later. And thus an allegedly just punishment may prove in fact to have been but an outburst of the impatience, irritability, and bad temper of him who does the punishing. Surely, hasty bad temper in adults has no more virtue than it has in children.
At the other extreme, there are those who are not quick enough to discipline, who are too indulgent or too indifferent; those who, in a very real sense, “spare the rod and spoil the child.” The problem of discipline is a weighty and constant and difficult problem, involving decisions that tax our wisdom—decisions as to when to use reason, when persuasion; when to use force and physical measures; when to plead, when to threaten, when to act, when to be lenient and when to be severe. But when it is unfortunately and unavoidably necessary to administer corrective discipline to others, including our own children, may we do it in justice, with a knowledge of the facts, and not in arbitrary inconsistency or unreasoning anger, so that hearts may not be embittered, and lives may not be blighted.
The Lord God has set us the pattern, with judgments which are just and sure to the offender, and with love and mercy that are quick to forgive on condition of repentance—and we are admonished to discipline “by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned . . . Reproving betimes with sharpness . . . and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou has reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy.”* Let our discipline be just and sure and consistent, neither justifying a misdeed nor meting out severe measure for small offense. And may our love be not blind or falsely indulgent, and may our mercy and forgiveness be not too tardy.
*Doc. and Cov. 121:41, 43.
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station K S L and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday Aug. 5, 1945. Copyright 1945.
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August 05, 1945
Broadcast Number 0,833