In Reply to: something i found posted by Repost on spankings on October 14, 2006 at 13:07:15:
I don't believe in corporal punishment and have not practiced in on my kids ever since they were very little, when we decided to stop. I don't think my understanding of "sparing not the rod" is compromised by not physically spanking. For e.g. to literally obey that verse we'd have to use an actual rod. A belt or a hand wouldn't do. Anyone know what "rod" meant in Hebrew? Was it like a willow switch? A cane?
One reason I believe "the rod" can be interpreted symbolically is because the Bible often talks about God disciplining us with His rod, and we know it's symbolic there. God often works on a kind of bless-or-remove-blessings principle, and that's his rod. So I think we can interpret any discipline we give to our children by the same standard. I believe discipline must be consistent and commeasurate with the disobedience or harmful behavior too.
One word of caution: if you presently believe in spanking and decide to stop it in favor of non-physical methods, it's easy to start relying on yelling and angry lecturing instead. Even the best of kids can get really out of hand and frustrating at times, mine sure have, especially my son, but I've heard (though I couldn't tell you where) that loud, angry verbal punishment is even worse and causes more psychological damage than mild corporal punishment.
It's one thing to show your kids you mean business and parents are delinquent if they just say it's too much trouble to discipline, but I try to never discipline in an angry spirit, no matter how upset I am by how one of my kids has willfully hurt the other.
Another thought is that even for parents who believe in corporal punishment, there comes a point in any kids' life when the corporal punishment stops and parents never spank again. After that, they begin using reasoning, remove privileges, etc. For me as a child, it stopped at about age twelve. My brother and I had been arguing loudly so my dad came in and spanked us and both of us defiantly refused to cry. My father never spanked us again. I just propose stopping spanking and using other methods and reasoning at an earlier age.