Are you sure?
This bookmark will be removed from all folders and any saved notes will be permanently removed.
Good kids, bad kids
The Other Day I stopped by our local library in Birmingham, Michigan. It has a fine collection, but I was amazed to see 599 (I counted them!) well-circulated titles on the subject of parenting. And I noticed that many of them included a section on discipline.
Obviously many parents are looking for answers to questions about how best to raise their children. They want well-behaved and responsible kids, yet they don't want to be seen as "the bad guys"—which can lead to some conflict.
After my library visit, I confirmed in my dictionaries that discipline and disciple have the same root—the Latin word for learner. For me, this suggests that a good rule for providing kids with successful discipline is for parents, grandparents, and teachers to successfully "discipline" themselves. The Bible puts it this way: "First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye" (Matt. 7:5, Good News Bible).
About the author
Contributing editor Tom Black and his wife, Mary Helen, have three daughters and three grandchildren. They live in Birmingham, Michigan.

November 15, 2004 issue
View Issue-
Prayer for the world's cities
Kim Shippey
-
letters
with contributions from Meg Cowan, Don L. Griffith, Dorothy Kerr, Ruth H. Holmes, Eudora J. North
-
Items of interest
with contributions from Greg Garrison, David Young
-
BEYOND DETROIT'S MEAN STREETS—SIGNS OF HOPE
Rosalie E. Dunbar
-
A TALE OF FOUR CITIES
R. E. D.
-
ANIMAL RITES
Text and photographs by Marilyn Jones
-
FORGIVE and move FORWARD
By Janet Clements
-
HE'S GOT YOU COVERED
By Deidre Michell
-
A man for all seasons
By Kim Shippey
-
Through a spiritual lens
Jo Andreae
-
IMMUNIZATION FOR ALL
Richard Bergenheim
-
Good kids, bad kids
Tom Black
-
'It just felt right'
Antero Villalpando
-
Hope for Haiti
Channing Walker
-
'God does not afflict'
Edwin G. Leever
-
A life improved
Maria da Soledade Ferreira
-
Pain and sadness—out of her life
Laurie Scott