And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger; but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).
The “objects of the proposition” of Christian parenting are the children, and parents must understand the nature of those to whom they give their nurture.
Each child is an image-bearer of God, uniquely created by God with eternal bodies and souls, “fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).
Each child is a “gift of the Lord”, and “blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them” (Psalm 127:3, 5).
Each child comes into the world fallen in Adam, a sinner by nature with a “bad bent” of the heart–of their thinking and their desiring and their choosing–with a sinful condition that requires nothing short of a rescue by the grace of God. “Foolishness” is bound up in their heart. Their hearts are not “blank slates” or “empty tablets” naturally inclined to do what is right.
Each child is a developing creature, moldable and subject to change in response to influence. As their bones and bodies develop in response to exercise and nutrition, so too their natures are susceptible to the influences of the common grace of parental training and to the special and saving grace of God.
Because each child is an image-bearer, the parent must recognize that each has value, dignity and significance. Because each one is uniquely created, the parent should regard each one uniquely. Because each one is a gift of the Lord, parents should treasure, cherish, and love each. Because each is a sinner by nature, parents need to be correct and chasten. Because their children are developing creatures, parents must patiently and wisely train them; and because God is gracious and merciful, parents may hope, as they do, that He will grant His special and saving grace to their children.
