Heartfelt Discipline

Trying to understand what God really says about childhood discipline can be like putting together a puzzle, but the pieces just don't all seem to fit. Since the early 1970s, conservative Christians have rejected the permissive "hands off" discipline of the 1950s, and adopted a strict "hands on" discipline taught by many well-known Christian parenting authorities. That view, though, is based primarily on a faulty exegesis of four verses in Proverbs. Scripture, instead, teaches a relational "hands around" discipline that bears no resemblance to what many have taught for forty years. In Heartfelt Discipline, Clay Clarkson examines all the relevant verses for childhood discipline to show how they have too often been either misunderstood or misapplied to young children, and wrongly turned into a formula for parenting success that has no biblical support. If you have young children and are beginning to try to solve the discipline puzzle for your family, start with this book. It is a fresh and fully biblical perspective on childhood discipline that will change the way you think about your children. You'll see how all the biblical pieces fit together and make sense, and put you on the path to your child's heart.

From the back cover: Childhood discipline is your responsibility. If you're a parent, your children need you to discipline them. There's no debate about that in Scripture. They, and God, are expecting you to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. But there is one thing open to debate...how to discipline your children. What does the Bible really say? Is there a divinely-designed method, a promise of parental success? Or is there a better way? There's no formula for childhood discipline. No laws, no rules. God has provided a way that is better. It is the way of life, the biblical picture of the path we walk with God. It's all about faith, relationship, Spirit, and heart. As a parent, you're already on that path of life with your children. You can lead them with three key principles of discipline:

Direction -- Guiding and showing them how to walk the path with God.
Correction -- Getting them back on the path when sin leads them off of it.
Protection -- Guarding them from temptations that could draw them away.

In Heartfelt Discipline Clay Clarkson helps you understand what the Bible really says about childhood discipline. Drawing on twenty-eight years of parenting and his personal study of the Bible, Clay fully fleshes out God's way of path of life parenting. It will change how you think about your responsibility to discipline your children. It will put you on the path to your child's heart.