:minimalist

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

 

Reading Bringing Up Bébé (Pamela Druckerman), and this quote sticks out:

"He said, 'Education is a firm cadre [framework], and inside is liberty.' I really like that. I think the kid is reassured. He knows he can do what he wants, but some limits will always be there."

This helps me understand one of my favorite Bible verses, James 1:25, a little bit better: "But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing." [ESV]

The idea that being under law provides freedom seems a bit contradictory, but in the context of parenting, it makes perfect sense. Here are the guidelines, and within these boundaries you are free to do whatever you want. It is not sensible to protest that having rules at all means that no freedom exists. In the absence of such a structure, Druckerman explains, children become subject to the "tyranny of their own desires."

Another quote from the book that strikes me as alluding to a greater truth:

"Do you know the surest means of making your child miserable?" [Rousseau] writes. "It is to accustom him to getting everything. Since his desires grow constantly due to the ease of satisfying them, sooner or later powerlessness will force you, in spite of yourself, to end up with a refusal. And this unaccustomed refusal will give him more torment than being deprived of what he desires."

How wise our Heavenly Father is in disciplining us and teaching us self denial and restraint! And how enormous and weighty a responsibility it is to be tasked with conferring this lesson upon another person.

bananna 3:43 PM  |