For centuries young parents raised their children in the same community as their extended family. Best practices for raising and disciplining children were both modeled and supported by the entire community. But today, the vast majority of young parents don’t live near their family and even when they do, they may not care to discipline their children the way they were disciplined growing up. Consequently, too many parents are using the “figure-it out-as-we-go method” as they YouTube and Google-Search their way to direction for the parenting years.
And as parents partner with schools, the lack of consistency in discipline can make raising the next generation even more challenging. My guest today shares, as a grandparent, a Biblical view of discipline for younger children that he shared with his own children as they were seeking advice.
Mike Jacobs has been getting to know Jesus since 1973. He and his wife Cindy are in their 45th year of marriage. Together they raised three sons to know and love Jesus, sons who likewise married believing wives and are now raising nine young children of their own. Mike has long been a businessman in the forest products industry. During this time he served on the board of the Logos School in Moscow, Idaho, where his sons received their childhood education. He also served for many years as a church elder and as a volunteer with Young Life. From 1998-2003 he took his family to the Dominican Republic to broaden his sons’ education while he worked in a development position on Young Life staff. Mike’s interest in God’s principles for discipline springs from his study of the Word as it applies to his and Cindy’s parental and grandparental responsibilities, and from seeing the unpleasant results in families that do not follow these principles.
RESOURCES