Children Who Give Delight
Lord's Day Exhortation
We are commanded by Scripture to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). This commandment includes discipline (including corporal discipline) and also words of instruction and exhortation. This has always been a duty for the people of God, as we read in Proverbs 29:15, “The rod and rebuke give wisdom: but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.”
In both of these passages, we see that parents have two God-given tools to help instill wisdom in their children, that they would love and obey the Lord. At times, all that is required is a word of “rebuke”—wise and loving words of guidance. Other times require the “rod”—but the rod should never be used without words of correction and comfort. In administering corporal discipline, you must communicate clearly to your child what their sin was, help them confess it, and lead them into the assurance of forgiveness. The goal of discipline is not punishment, but their restoration to glad fellowship with God and others.
Now, note that the proverb gives a warning—children left to themselves, without discipline or instruction, will bring shame to their mothers. Of course, when they are small, the shame may be small and hidden. But as they grow tall, so will the shame.
On the other hand, a few verses later we read this promise, “Correct your son and he will give you rest; Yes he will give delight to your soul” (Prov. 29:17). The fruit of discipline is not just seen in your children’s lives, but in your own life and in the health of your whole family. When disobedience is left unchecked, when you let sin reign in your household—both your own sin and the sin of your children—everyone will suffer.
Children are a blessing from the Lord, but not an automatic one. Children can bring great shame and pain upon a family, in effect becoming a curse. But when you rely on the Lord and seek to lovingly discipline your children, God has given every indication that He is pleased to reward such faith.
Therefore, the exhortation is to persevere, keep up the good and difficult work of raising your children in the Lord. And may God then be pleased to give you great delight from them, now and in the years to come, as they grow into mature disciples of Christ.
This exhortation was given on July 20, AD 2025, at King’s Cross Church in Moscow, Idaho.