God has given us a blueprint for living creative, productive, fulfilling lives and experiencing fulfilling relationships with one another and with him. The blueprint is known as the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
The Bible incorporates a number of smaller blueprints for every aspect of living, including marriage (a permanent, faithful relationship between a man and a women), conducting business, forming and living in a healthy societies (laws must be obeyed), and the rearing of children (proper discipline is as critical to proper child rearing as is love; the education of the children is the responsibility of parents).
Because God created us in his image, we possess free will. This freedom includes the freedom to choose whether we obey God, whether we live our lives in accord with his blueprints for living. Choices result in consequences. The ultimate consequence of obeying God is good. The ultimate consequence of disobeying God is the opposite of good.
The risks of attempting to raise a child without regard for God's blueprint for child rearing, as clearly set forth in his Big Blueprint, include a child who is ill-behaved, disrespectful, destructive and self-destructive, irresponsible, inattentive, careless, aggressive, self-centered, deceitful and so on. The risks to the child's parents include chronic frustration, stress, anxiety, anger, resentment, conflict, and guilt.
The sad tragic fact is that most American parents, even many believers in Christ have deviated from God's child-rearing blueprint in raising their children. This alone explains why child rearing has become the single most stressful, frustrating anxiety-and guilt-ridden thing American adults (especially females) will ever do.
But any parent who so chooses can realign his or her child rearing with God's plan will begin to experience success.
-John Rosemond
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