Section 2
family life. A good family life is the product of forbearance. If a husband and wife show forbear ance toward each other and toward their chil dren, they will have an excellent married life and family life. However, if they do not exercise forbearance, they will seriously damage their life together as a family.
In dealing with their children, parents should be neither too strict nor too tolerant. Both exces sive strictness and excessive tolerance are dam aging to children. Then what is the right way for parents to care for their children? The right way is the way which is full of forbearance.
Suppose a child does something wrong, and the matter is made known to his father. He should not rebuke his child in a hasty way or spank him in anger. In Ephesians 6 Paul tells us not to provoke our children. Usually parents provoke their children by dealing with them in anger. If you are angry with your child, you first need to ask the Lord to take away your anger. Once your anger has been dealt with by the Lord, you need to exercise your understanding to realize why the child made that particular mistake. No doubt, the child was wrong. Never theless, you still must understand his situation. Perhaps he was wrong because you were careless.