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Re: 2 swats puts Dad in court
"Barnett struck hard enough to cause purplish bruises about four inches in width, the complaint stated."
No one *needs* to or *has a responsibility to* spank their child hard enough to cause "purplish bruises four inches in width."
You do NOT have a biblical mandate to spank your children. You do have a mandate to raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord, to provoke them NOT to anger, to raise them up in the way they should go, etc. I agree that the Bible allows spanking, but it is certainly NOT commanded, nor is it the only way to discipline a child. It is WAY overused in the church world, and in many cases it's a first resort, instead of a last, because parents want to spend less time actually training and teaching their children, and just do a little impulse control.
I certainly do not see any need to ever bruise a child. I have swatted my girls pretty good on the behind before, and I have NEVER left a mark. I can't imagine what kind of force would be necessary in order to leave a mark, and I think a parent would have to be angry in order to do so. JMO
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"God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to Yours."
--David Livingstone
"To see no being, not God’s or any, but you also go thither,
To see no possession but you may possess it—enjoying all without labor or purchase—
abstracting the feast, yet not abstracting one particle of it;…."
--Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, Song of the Open Road
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