Don’t Tolerate Bad Behavior – Respond To Petulant People With Just & Righteousness
Word-of-the-Day: ’ A rod and a reprimand impart wisdom, but a child left undisciplined disgraces its mother.’ (Proverbs 29:15)
We see today many examples of adults, some who are seniors, acting like petulant children. It is easy (and perhaps biased) to point to politicians or the children of politicians who do not seem to have the capacity to have respect for themselves or others around them. Their interaction skills and mannerisms are what we call ‘cringe-worthy’.
What was once something we would call abhorrent is now normal or main-stream. Someone using foul language was seen as low-brow and crude, but thanks to video-capturing and societal preference those words are now common vernacular. It goes beyond the language, however. Decorum in behavior has evaporated as even without vulgarities in language used, many use insulting words and gestures upon their opponents to demonstrate their disdain against them. Unfortunately, this behavior is tit-for-tat.
Our President and his opposition do this against each other, but politicians aren’t the only ones. It is no longer a ‘agree-to-disagree’ world; both sides denigrate each other, describing one another in unflattering terms. These attacks are not to make their point valid or their opponent’s point invalid; it is to ridicule the opponent to show that they do not have the capacity or ability to make their point.
Poor relationship skills are often not the only thing lacking. Many actions we find are unbecoming, such as those listed as the ‘seven deadly sins’: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth (Laziness), Wrath, Envy, and Pride. Though they are not listed or grouped together as such in the Bible, the Bible individually teaches that each of these are sinful traits and actions. The central core or common denominator to each of these is selfishness. Any of these sins stem from selfishness or overriding God’s Will with our own.
Those who act like petulant children often started out as petulant children and were never corrected or adjusted to become civilized and respectable in adulthood. As Proverbs 29:15, and several other passages in Proverbs provide, it is often, but not always, a failure in the raising of children in a Godly, moral manner that creates this condition.
We often read Proverbs 29:15 and similar verses as ‘corporal punishment’, and in a direct sense it is true; spankings provide a temporarily painful consequence to a witnessed or discovered bad behavioral action. In today’s society, corporal punishment is seen negatively, as there have been cases where the corporal punishment went beyond correction and into physical abuse. But the ‘rod and reprimand’ does not have to be physical in consequence; it can be grounding the child at home or to their room, making them do extra chores, or taking away privileges or rewards.
Regardless of how the consequence is delivered, it must be administered. The consequence is to be something for the child to remember, to learn not to do the wrongful action again. If a child does not want to do assigned chores or do homework, for example, it is proper to take away an activity that they want to do to encourage them that life sometimes requires us to do things we don’t want to do first to do things we want to do. To allow them to continue to skip chores or avoid homework and letting them play video games eventually will hurt them; they fail to graduate or refusing to take up meaningful employment.
We want our kids to grow up and be Godly, responsible adults, but if they don’t learn in their homes when they are young, they won’t know what it means as they get older. Some children grow up disciplined but once they leave the home they stray away. Some of this is a result of the reinforcement of proper behavior is missing as they have left home and bad habits are adopted. One could draw a correlation of why politicians often behave so badly, and the lack of correction they receive from their constituents as they are voted back into their roles over and over again.
Start by being an influence for Godly behavior and actions to your children and grandchildren. You do not have to use the physical rod, but you can be the example of Godliness to them and show them proper moral behavior through your speech and actions. For the grown-ups who are petulant, we cannot be afraid to tell them that they are doing wrong, and that they can do better. We do not have to lower ourselves to their derogatory level, but in being moral and Righteous, inform them of their wrongdoing, firm and steadfast in Godly standards.
In our secular society, we will not find all the people willing to become fully Righteous or moral, and while we cannot legislate morality, we need to hold to our standards and not fall to theirs. Our expectation should be for a moral and Godly society to at least respect us and our views.
