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 parental responsibility to bring up their children is exercised as a process and a process in which the force of parental authority and influence are adjusted and recalibrated as the child grows and matures.
Christian parenting begins as a process where parents strictly regulate, restrict and restrain their very young children and progresses with a steady relaxation of that strictness, as the child makes the transition form being restricted by the parents to exercising responsibility and greater personal freedom.
“As the reason expands and the affections unfold and the conscience asserts its supremacy, the force of bare authority must slacken. It is part of the training itself to throw the eaglets upon their own wing to balance in the air. The youth of 16 cannot be ruled as the boy of six years; and the parent has missed his chance who is not able, quietly and by degrees, to substitute influence in the place of authority (Palmer).”
Christian parents progress from a process of tight restriction early on to one of supporting release, where the parent aims to release their growing and maturing child into the world on their own, competent to handle issues and responsibilities of mature adulthood.
