“God teaches that children should honor their parents,” I replied, “and if we parent by His standards, we must teach our children how to be respectful. It’s not loving to let your child live in disregard of authority or in disobedience to God’s Word.”

“So how would you handle that?” Annie asked.

“One way we deal with disobedience at our house is with a privilege chart. When one of the boys disobeys, he loses one of the privileges on the chart—like video games—for the rest of the day. So far that’s worked really well for our family.”

Children need loving guidance every step of the way, and this requires careful, intentional, biblical parenting. Parents have the God-given responsibility to train and direct children in the way they should go. God trains and disciplines us in love for our well-being and to help us become more like Jesus. That’s the biblical model for raising our own children.

As you seek balance and wisdom in discipline, be prayerful. Ask God to show you your child’s struggles and how to deal with them effectively and lovingly. We have a tremendous responsibility to raise them in the fear and knowledge of God, a task that can only be achieved by His grace and power. Pray that your child will be given a heart that seeks the Lord and obeys His authority so that he or she might live and love as Jesus did.