...observations and ramblings from a learner and traveler...

22 January 2011

How to deal with Baby's wrong actions...

I'm looking for input on these thoughts; they came up in a conversation tonight, and I think they are valid.  Please respond if you have useful thoughts either for or against.

Presumptions:
  1.  Baby is a sinner by nature (Romans 5:12-19), even at six months old.
  2.  Baby is already a sinner by choice. (She already decides whether she will or won't do many things.  We watch her do it.)

Assessment:
  1.  Baby does not yet know when she chooses right or wrong.  
  2.  Baby probably does not even know that she is choosing yet.

Conclusion:
  1.  As parents, we must first teach Baby what is right and what is wrong.
  2.  Then, we must train her to love and do right and to hate and flee wrong. 
  3.  Teaching and correction are teammates and should get well-managed playing time with preference at this early stage to teaching.

Explanation: 
   Baby is a sinner.  The Bible and experience both support this conclusion.  However, at this point, she seems to have little recognition of her ability to make moral choices.  This does not mean that she is not responsible or that sin is not sin.  But, it does speak to her primary need at this point in her life: teaching, not correction.  Her conscience needs to be formed and informed.  She needs to learn the Law-code, God's righteousness, without which she would develop her own moral code based on culture, surroundings, and/or personality.  This need for instruction versus correction is probably a matter of emphasis, not a sharp distinction.  She needs affirming and correcting instruction, not behavioral correction.  She is rebelling without knowledge, rather than with knowledge.  (A number of Scriptures indicate that ignorance can mitigate penalty, though not guilt: Romans 2:12ff, Acts 17:30; Luke 12:41-48.) All this would indicate that our primary job as parents right now is instruction which should be done with extra patience, gentleness and understanding.

Considerations:
1.  Baby will be able to know right versus wrong within a few more months, at least to the basic level of obeying authority.
2.  There are likely implications to the image of God in her and His law being written on her heart, just as there were implications to her having a sin nature.  There things should be pondered further.
3.  The difference in practice which this makes towards an infant may not be great, but it seems to be a helpful difference in mindset.

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