mekeelin_ujohn

I still wonder about using proverbs as evidence that it is biblical to spank. Our pastor has preached about Solomon and his influence on proverbs. And since we are supposed to read the bible in it's entirety, shouldn't we then take into account that solomon's kid turned into a horrible person? I guess I'm still wondering if we actually spank because it was the way we were raised.

I guess since spanking differs in every household, even Christian ones, opinions about whether it is right ow wrong will differ. I also think it's hard to look at a baby and think about hitting it, those thoughts may come easier when the kid starts testing the waters. Also, I thought the Conversation was pretty civil, I didn't think anyone was picking a fight. If there wasn't differing opinions it wouldn't be very interesting.

You know, I like what axxman said about raising a child in Christ, if you can do it without hitting, why not? I would never cross the line and say my dad abused us, but to be honest we exhausted him. It was hard for him raising three kids alone and we did not make it easy for him. Now that I have assumed responsibility for my nephew now, as he lives under my roof, is there an alternative to spanking that will still lead to respect...and love...and godly character? I will now mosey over to the parents section and see what all the fuss is about over there.

Dear Goodness! Even though the people that swim their laps at 6am are out of the pool and have all their limbs...it still scared me when I read that they had gone swimming in the dark with a shark!! When we were younger we used to go to the beach every summer, my grandparents had a beach house and we would spend all summer with them. When evening arrived or dawn approached nurse sharks would come in to feed on the bottom of the shore. Their fins would pop up and you could see them swimming really close. If we happened to be in the water when we saw their approach, we would all scream shark...and laugh as tourists were spotted running for their lives. Even though the nurse sharks never hurt us, if I were to go in the water tomorrow and see one coming close, I would run like all the other tourists. Sharks are just creepy.

I always wondered how all those animals got to Noah...I think God had to tell them in advance to start moving, that way when the ark was finished they would all be there and ready to load. I remember being stuck in a hotel room with my brothers once because it was raining outside...and for almost 3 hours we sat and watched this special about the JFK assasination, and we kept watching it because they kept telling us that we would see the original reel from that day. We were anticipating seeing the actual footage that was caught that day. We thought we might see something new, that we were going to discover who actually killed Kennedy, so we just kept watching. And finally, 10 minutes before the show went off...I KID YOU NOT!!...they took a silver film reel out of a locked safe and showed it to us. They did not show us the footage on TV, they showed us a silver circle with brown film tape wrapped around it. That's it. We were so disappointed and spent the next few minutes rolling around on the bed and holding our stomachs because we realized we had just wasted hours of our life expecting to see something grand, and then just seeing that thing. This Noah's Ark thing reminds me of that. Whenever it's said that something has been discovered, I expect something big. I expect that they will take us to some remote location and there under the dirt they will have dug up an entire ark with windows and huge door ramp intact and ready to set sail if there were only another flood. Instead all we get are some pieces of gopher bark...

As children, me and my brothers were often spanked by our dad. No matter what, if we did something bad, we usually got the belt, or a wooden spoon, or a spatula, or some other implement of punishment. Even when we were older we'd get spanked if we did something "bad." Now that I take care of my nephew all the time, I look at him and think there is no way I could ever hit him, and I'm not sure when parents get over that and think it's an ok time to start hitting their kids. I know alot of people, Christian people, will say it is ok to spank because it says it is ok in the Bible, and they usually come up with verses from Proverbs that pretty much say if you spare the rod, you spoil the child. But as readers of the Bible, I think it is generally believed that King Solomon wrote this or at least was the inspiration behind these passages. And if Solomon was generally speaking about how to raise a child by telling us how he raised his own...wouldn't we also need to look at how well his son turned out? And since the Bible also mentions that his son grew up to be a mean, spiteful, and hateful person that had to run away to avoid being assasinated by his own people...wouldn't we have to put two and two together? Solomon beat his son, son turns into a hateful beast that everyone wants to kill. Does spanking actually work? And is it really the best, biblical, Christian means of punishment? Or as caregivers, do we use the Bible as an excuse, when really we're just doing what our parents did to us and what their parents did to them...just continuing the cycle. So I guess my question would be, is it really Biblical to spank your kids and expect them to turn out ok? Or are there times when spanking just isn't right?

If you've told people about your story, then stop...because I find that the quickest way to squelch my writing is to share it with others. If you haven't told your book idea to anyone, don't start now. Set the book aside for awhile and read something. Maybe choose something in the same genre that you are attempting to write in, sometimes when the creative juices stop flowing for me, I sit back with a good book and remember why I enjoy writing so much, and that gets the motor running again.

It feels as if I

If ever there were a time for cries of help to be heard, let it be today