By DAVID EPPS
Pastor

The early morning stillness was shattered by a bloodcurdling scream.

Thinking that someone was being murdered, I quickly looked down into the swimming pool area from the balcony of the place we were staying. Instinctively, I glanced for the telephone wondering how long it would take the police to arrive after I dialed "911." There, in the water at the shallow end of the pool, I saw her.

It wasn't a murder victim, however. What I saw was more horrifying than that. There, in the pool, was a spoiled-rotten wisp of a nine-year-old girl throwing a tremendous temper tantrum because she didn't get her way.

I don't know what she desired that she didn't get, but, trashing and screaming at the top of her lungs like the poor girl in "The Exorcist," she was making her displeasure known to anyone who happened within a square mile of her piercing cries. Pointing her finger at her mother who was standing near the pool, the blond brat screamed, "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!"

Mummy smiled sweetly and said softly, "Now, now dear. Let's come along."

What? "Now, now dear?" That's it? I think that all who had their morning serenity destroyed were waiting for the beatings to begin. "Come along?" Ah, but I suppose that this long-suffering mother was more liberal and more enlightened than the rest of us Neanderthals and believed that allowing the child to have a full range of expression was healthy and even desirable.

Rubbish! The kid needed good bottom massage with the business end of a belt.

A number of years ago, my oldest son, then a wee lad, as the Irish say, was about to be the recipient of corporal punishment at the hands of his not so wee father. "Before I do this, son, I want to say something to you," I began.

"I know, Dad," he sobbed, "you're gonna say that this will hurt you more than it does me."

"Why would I say that?" I replied. "This isn't going to hurt me at all. It's not supposed to. It's going to hurt you."

I could tell by the shocked look on his face that my answer surprised him.

"I'm going to spank you," I shared, "because I want you to understand that disobedience causes pain. It always does and it always will, even when you get older."

And that, in a nutshell, is why I believe that spanking, if administered fairly, quickly, and without rage is a good thing. It helps children associate disobedience with pain. And that is a lesson worth learning.

I know I sound like a grumpy old man, but I have never understood parents who allow their children to run roughshod over them. A number of years ago, my three sons (who were still quite young) and I were enjoying a day at a swimming pool. A little boy, of about six, was screaming and causing all sorts of havoc because his mom said it was time to go and he was not in consensus with that decision.

For 15 minutes, Mom begged, pleaded, and bribed him to leave the pool. Finally, she bent down, got her face close to her son's face and said, "Now honey, you know I told you before we came ... "

WHACK! The little demon slapped his Mom full in the face in front of 50 other swimmers! All three of my sons looked at each other and said in unison, "Oooooooooooo, dead meat!" Then they turned to watch Mom clobber little Adolf.

But, alas, it wasn't to be. It took Mom another 15 minutes of subjecting the swimmers to more of the same before she finally dragged the kid to the car.

That kid should be in his twenties by now. I wonder what jail he is in?

Children have but one duty toward their parents, according to the New Testament. "Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right" (Ephesians 6:1, NASB). What's hard to understand about that? "Children, obey."

Who is given the task to train the children? Parents, of course. "Train a child up in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6, NASB). Yet, every day, wild, undisciplined, and unruly children will terrorize diners who simply wish to enjoy a meal, will disrupt a movie, will destroy a church service, or will bully other children (and even their parents) simply because they can.

The children I can understand. "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child" (Proverbs 22:15).

It's the parents, who believe that somehow these monsters-in-training will just automatically grow up to be nice people, that I can't fathom.

[Father David Epps is rector of Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church serving the south metro Atlanta area. He may be contacted at FatherDavidEpps@aol.com or at www.ctkcec.org.]

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