Ouch
Jeff at Anti-Itch Meditation writes about his young daughter and the urge to over-manage children:
It’s a temptation to squash kids, tell them not to get so upset, don’t get too excited. . . But my daughter longs for perfection and for eternity. She shows it so clearly. I love that.Ouch.
It seems as if the Church tries its hardest to squash people. Don’t have too much fun. Don’t get angry. Don’t get upset. Don’t laugh. Don’t cry. Don’t play loud music, unless it’s in the Spirit of course.
We squash believers and then tell them to go out and attract people for Christ. Right. How’s that work now? The world won’t listen to people who are more squashed than they are. C. S. Lewis said, “We castrate the gelding and then bid him be fruitful.” That’s the Church. That’s why it’s so ineffective and that’s why no one comes.
posted by Milton Stanley at 6:36 AM
2 Comments:
The story of this little girl reminds me of my own little girl, now 16 yo.
When our kids were small, a pastor said to me: "It's a fine line between breaking a child's stubborn will and crushing his spirit."
It's very hard to avoid doing the latter; I've probably done it to my kids at one time or another.
You're right. It really is hard. My wife and I have eight years between our first and second sons. I feel like I was too overbearing with the first and far too lenient with the second and third. That has something to do with age, I think.
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