Should Children Be Spanked?

There is a difference between abusing a child and disciplining a child. Children know the difference between an objective spanking ministered in love and a beating springing from hostility and anger.

• “Correct your son, and he will give you rest; yes, he will give delight to your soul” (Prov. 29:17, NKJV).

• “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction will drive it far from him” (Prov. 22:15).

• “By mere words a servant is not disciplined, for though he understands, he will not respond” (Prov. 29:19, ESV).

• “The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother” (Prov. 29:15, ESV).

• “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death” (Prov. 23:13-14, NIV).

• “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it” (Pr0v. 22:6, NIV).

God’s method for curbing harmful attitudes and nurturing healthy ones is not parents going ballistic, threatening, screaming, hauling off and smacking in anger, tuning out destructive conduct, bribing with candy or banishment to a room to brood and fester in resentment.

Loving correction, which includes spanking at times, is an expression of love! Though not literally, have you ever experienced a “spanking” from the Lord for persistent, ungodly conduct? “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son” (Heb. 12:5-6, NIV).

The 10 Essentials of Loving Correction

Research reveals that in America up to 85% acknowledge they’ve used corporal punishment. Every state in America allows corporal punishment of children. Nineteen states employee it in the schools. 200,000 students annually are paddled in America according to the U.S. Department of Education. Due to disciplinary problems in schools many are reevaluating their policies, such as the Arlington school district outside Memphis, Tennessee, that just voted recently to reinstate corporal punishment saying, “teachers need all tools possible.”