The Fear of God

I completely agree, we are His children......

Without fear would be the same as if we told our children, okay, do whatever you like, their are no consequences, I'll pick up the pieces......

Wonderfully said. Thanks for your comments, Sandra.

Wow ...I never, purposefully instilled a sense of fear, into my parenting while raising my three kids and God didn't have anything to do with it either. My kids were raised with Love and Discipline. They were taught rules, boundaries, limitations and the consequences of their behavior. If they had any fear (which I am sure they did) it was having to suffer the consequence of their behavior and was generated by their own intuition.. My kids did not fear my wife and I. IMHO - "inducing fear is sheer recklessness" and demonstrates a shallow self esteem of a parent.

While its normally its not me to even comment on anything religious or political in nature..This only flirts with religion and is more of a belief thing. When anything is done repetitively its becomes a belief...This is how brainwashing works. So by fooling your children or intimidating them to do the right things based on fear of god instead of trusting your teachings in the name of god your life making all your decisions based on fear. Even if you dont truly believe it if you teach this to your children they will in fact grow up believing this. I have never been taught any lessons out of fear. People in this world seem to have enough to fear today without taking something that i believe is love based and turning it around just to instill certain behaviors in out children..Bad frog says it best its seems like reckless parenting and puts the responsibility of teaching our children right from wrong on something other than you...You in actuality are responsible for the raising of your children and this IMHO does not lie in a belief in your god. Your tags say it all but i dont think wisdom and fear should ever be together..Fear based anything is not wise...I would have expected to see love, trust, respect, etc. down there.

Badfrog, did you ever spoke firmly and wit an attitude to your kids if they were trying or doing something wrong? If you just spoke to them tryng to make them understand something they could not understand because of their age and they were able to behave without understanding, then you have kids different from the rest od us. My kid needed for me speak to her firmly and strong sometimes. She would look at me with an expression saying I dont understand but I am shamefull and afraid to do it again. Will you tell a two year old, "honey, dont put your fingers in this current outlets" Or just speak firmly with an attitude. If your old child tries to let his or her hand loose from you and start running to the road, are yougoing to try to explain a two year old how dangerous that behavior is?

Again, fear is not a bad negative. Is a necessary negative.

So how do you protect your children from doing something dangerous if they dont have the capacity to understand, like running away from you, at age two, to the road?