JUST SEEING the headline Spare The Rod in the Sunday Sun April 23, 2017, about 6 a.m., I was a bit surprised and concerned.
However, later that morning at service, the pastor spoke briefly about the 1956 Olympic Games in Australia where a sure win turned into a loss because the runner, at the last moment, dropped the baton, and I was somewhat relieved.
Ms Marshall-Harris said that flogging was so embedded in Barbados’ culture that it will be difficult to get away from it. She is quite right, because it was embedded in our forefathers, because it is embedded in the Bible where they got their instructions on how to bring up children.
In other words, our forefathers held on to, carried and passed their batons just as they should, down to us. I hope that no committee or body is asking us now to drop that baton.
Proverbs 13:24: Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. (There are about 50 English translations)
Proverbs 22:6: Train up a child in the way it should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 23:13-14: Do not withhold discipline from a child, if you strike him with a rod he will not die. If you strike him with a rod, you will be saving his soul from death.
Our forefathers knew exactly where to look for instruction when raising their children. It was effective over 2 000 years ago, 300 years ago, and is still effective now.
– BETTY GOODING
