I always thought as I was taught, that children learn violence. They learn how to hit, they learn how to fight. That if they aren't exposed to it by parents, media or friends they won't do those things. It makes sense. Afterall Proverbs 22:6 says: Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. If you teach them they will do it. Well that whole notion got blown out of the water this week.
It all started (like a bad book. No, lol.) when I was watching the Duggars. They don't watch tv, well not at home anyways. 2 of the kids were fighting. Hitting even. Mrs. Duggar was talking about how kids just do this, its their nature. I was confused. They didn't have a tv, they don't spank. How in the world are their kids hitting? Then it occured to me. Cain had no one to teach him how to murder. Violence is not learned, its our sin nature. You can be the best parent in the world and your children will still have that nature. Well that was a sigh of relief for me I tell you. Here I thought I must be doing something wrong because there were times my kids were just non stop fighting.
You can all say DUH with me now. It only took me what 11+ years to figure this out.
Of course kids know how to fight naturally. What we parents are here to do is to teach them the proper context for everything they do. There is a time and place for things, and a Father's job is to teach his kids that fighting for the sake of fighting is wrong, but fighting to protect a sibling, or to stand for the weak, or against evil has it's place in the world. The scuffling they do with their siblings is just familial politics. There is definitely a big difference between squabbles between kids and real violence.
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