Not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
Numbers 22:27-29
When the donkey saw the angel
of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam. And Balaam's
anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff. Then
the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have
I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have
made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.”
When
Balaam became angry at his donkey for not meeting his expectations, he struck
the beast with a stick. Balaam went on to say that if he had a sword he would
have killed the donkey. Children, of course, are not beasts. Angry parents,
however, may be guilty of treating them as such when their anger is out of
control. Several parallels can be made between Balaam’s sinful anger and a
parent out of control. I will mention three:
1.
Balaam struck the donkey in haste, before he
had collected all of the relevant data. Before we as parents jump to hasty and
unfounded conclusions and discipline our children for the wrong reason, we must
be certain we have the facts.
2.
Balaam struck the donkey because the donkey
embarrassed him. We should be certain that our motivation for discipline is
biblical, and not selfish. For us to discipline our children for selfish
reasons, such as embarrassment or unfulfilled expectations, rather than for
sin, is vindictive and abusive.
3.
Balaam was out of control. (He would have
killed his faithful donkey if he had the means to do it!) We parents should
discipline our children only when we have gotten our anger under control and
are not likely to harm our children.
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