Human Imperfection, Teboho Kibe [read a book .txt] 📗

DISCIPLINE AND LOVE

When giving instructions or commands, say what you mean and mean what you say. If you give orders in a nagging fashion, you teach your child how to disobey, for he knows he can ignore your command and you will oblige by repeating it. But he will not tarry if you demonstrate that your words are backed by action. Of course, many times it may be wise to give a reason for a certain command or restriction. You may feel that you do not have to give your child a reason for your orders, but remember this: By understanding why a certain course is wise or foolish, your child will have good reason to choose the wise course when you are not present. Notice how the Bible frequently gives the reason why a course is good or bad. Copy that good example.—Prov. 23:20, 21; 24:15, 16, 19, 20.

When your child takes the foolish course, in spite of your good counsel, remember Proverbs 22:15: “Foolishness is tied up with the heart of a boy; the rod of discipline is what will remove it far from him.” Jehovah urges you not to hold back discipline from a mere boy. (Prov. 23:13, 14) You know when your child is out of line, and very likely he knows it too. As one delinquent told a reporter: “I never got a whipping, although, actually, I often felt I should have.” Do not irritate your children by constantly changing the “rules” or punishing a disobedient act one day and not the next. Copy Jehovah. Live up to your word, be consistent and discipline out of love.—Prov. 13:24; Heb. 12:6.

In these critical times when many are without natural affection it is important that your child know he is loved and wanted. (2 Tim. 3:3) When you lay down reasonable restrictions as to right company and late hours and strictly enforce your wishes you show that you are a loving parent that really cares. Your love is felt, though perhaps not appreciated at the moment, when you insist that your child always ask permission to go somewhere and that he tell you with whom he is going. Time and again it is found that when children get into trouble, such as shoplifting, their parents have no idea where they are. If you care, you will make it your business to know. You will also teach your child to stay away from anyone who would induce him by ridicule or coercion to go against the wish of his God or his parents. Teach him that his reputation with God is the one that really counts. If adversity strikes your family, turn it to advantage by showing your child how to draw close to God for comfort and guidance. All this is part of the priceless training of your child in the way he must go for everlasting life.—Prov. 22:6.

But someone may ask: Are not some politicians correct in attributing delinquency’s statistical increase to improved police efficiency in methods of exposing crime and capturing criminals? Further, is not population centralization responsible for a great deal of the accent on delinquency? And, too, with a growing world population, is it not natural to expect more marriages, more children, more divorces and more delinquency?

Well, none of these arguments stand up under a truthful examination. The growth of divorces, delinquency and crime has far surpassed the population increase rate. Benjamin Fine, in his book One Million Delinquents, says the population has increased 5 percent since 1950, while crime has leaped ahead 20 percent in the same period. Worse yet was this figure: In 1953 adult crime rose 1.9 percent, but child crime rose 7.9 percent. In 1956 there was an increase of 17.2 juvenile arrests over 1955, while the number of persons aged 10-17 increased less than 3 percent. In 1956 juvenile arrests were nearly 42 percent higher than in 1952, while the juvenile population had increased only 13.5 percent. With more policemen, educational and social centres, etc., there should have been a marked decrease in the percentage of delinquents, but the opposite is true.

Crime is no longer a phenomenon peculiar to city slums, nor can poverty and war receive all the blame. Juvenile crime has spread to the suburbs and to the rural sections. It has taken root at all social levels. In Sweden, where there has been no war and very little poverty, the country has one of the highest divorce rates in Europe and juvenile and adult delinquency have became major problems. The American Weekly of November 13, 1955, stated that in Sweden’s population of some 7,000,000 “there are 27,000 illegitimate children a year”; “that of every 10 Swedish women now being married, seven have conceived at least one child before reaching the altar.” Justice Samuel H. Hofstadter charged that it is the corruption of the elders that “has spawned the delinquency of the young.” He said that the problem “cuts across nations, cultures and ideologies. . . . We live in a climate of moral and physical violence—and our children reflect the world of which they are a part.”

Jesus and his apostles foretold that these conditions would befall this generation. Jesus said: “Because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off.” Paul wrote: “But know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, without gratitude, with no loving-kindness, . . . lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God.” We who live today are privileged to see these words being fulfilled before our very eyes. It is a sign of the outgoing of a dying old world and an assurance that the new world is near at hand.—Matt. 24:12; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; 2 Pet. 3:3-13.

Still in human imperfection and its various manifestations, some friends may be worried that I seem to place too much emphasis on the Bible as a sole indisputable guide, and thereby shunning the general or researched material of psychology, psychiatry and other forms of organizational reforms or rehabilitation procedures. Friends, be assured, I don’t want to be naïve nor do I want to sound dogmatic or unadulterated in opinion and observation. But what I’ve noticed is that the more I point “every” solution to the Bible, it may sound as if the world ought to stand still and watch the Bible do everything for it in “perfection.” No my friends, I don’t mean it that way, I know that you also want to take a breather and get some fresh air elsewhere other than in the Bible. Such a feeling is perfectly normal and I also personally like to use my faculties to a reasonable degree in establishing certain facts and later fathom them in the light of the Bible to see if they are truly plumb and level. So please rest assured that I am not against any lateral assistance so as to establish any healthful pattern conducive in society.

In-fact, one issue of Psychology Today presented what eleven of “the best minds in the field” considered to be “the most significant work in psychology” in some years past. The scholarly eighteen-page article prompted The New York Times to publish an editorial that, in part, says:

“The 11 Best Minds in psychology agree on hardly anything. . . . Several contributors mention experiments of their own. Well, if they think that, there is no need for false modesty. But no such work is cited by any other Best Mind except for purposes of criticism; each trumpet blower blows his own tune, which makes for a conspicuous absence of harmony.

“The failure of the 11 psychologists to agree on almost anything evinces a serious problem in their academic discipline. . . . Can psychology be taken seriously as science if even its leading practitioners cannot agree on its recent advances?”

It is just this sort of contradictory and high-minded pseudo knowledge that the apostle Paul advised Timothy to guard against: “Have nothing to do with the pointless philosophical discussions and antagonistic beliefs of the ‘knowledge’ which is not knowledge at all.”—1 Timothy 6:20, Jerusalem Bible.

So, having said all of these, I know that to some readers this may raise the very curiosity of the reliability of the Bible itself, whether it can be regarded as a real all rounded tool of everyday life in all of life’s situations. I’d like to assure such friends that there is an edifying answer to such curiosity.

Some friends may ask: Is the Bible modern for today? To many persons its modern practicalness is limited to literary quality, political speeches, birthday presents and crossword puzzles. What are the Bible’s answers to problems of living? Are they practical for today? How do we know?

Those who view the Bible as impractical, could it not be that to them it is an unknown Book? A casual browsing of a Bible translation that uses out-of-date language may cause one to conclude wrongly that the Book’s principles are also out of date. It is only by acquiring knowledge of the Bible, whether a modern-language translation is used or not, that one can truly appraise its standards. The unvarnished fact is that those who clamour the loudest that the Bible is old-fashioned are the very ones who have not acquainted themselves with it nor have they applied its principles.

Let us look for a moment at what exists in the world as a result from viewing the Bible impractical. As we do so we can ask, How practical is it?—the love of money, robbery and murder, mounting juvenile delinquency, overcrowded jails, fornication and immoralities of the most sordid kind, black markets in babies, broken marriages, gambling mania, stupefying hero worship, increasing suicide, drug addiction, liquor addiction and skid rows, explosive nationalism, revolution and riots and colossal blood sacrifices to the god Mars.

But how do we know that the Bible is modern enough to answer such perplexing problems? Because the Bible was written by men inspired by Jehovah God. Said one writer: “The Spirit of Jehovah spake by me, and his word was upon my tongue.” (2 Sam. 23:2, AS) Who can understand the operation of a machine better than its inventor? So it is that Jehovah knows what is best for the smooth operation of his masterpiece of living machinery, the human body.

THE BIBLE AND TRUE SCIENCE

Now we can understand why the Bible passes every test of modernity. Critics may harp that it is unscientific, but such ones display ignorance, not knowledge. The Bible has always harmonized with true science. The theory that the earth was a body in space and traveled around the sun was offered by Nicholaus Copernicus (1473-1543). Yet some 3,000 years before Copernicus’ time, the Bible showed that the earth was a body in space: “He stretcheth out the north over empty space, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.” Magellan (1480-1521) proved the earth was round when he sailed around the world. But some 2,200 years before Magellan’s time the Bible showed the earth was round by speaking of Jehovah as “he that sitteth above the circle of the earth.”—Job 26:7; Isa. 40:22, AS.

The Bible and archaeology? Perfect agreement. The Bible says man was created perfect, that, because of Adam’s sin, he degenerated, not evolved upward. Archaeology has found the Bible modern, the evolutionists old fogies. Said one authority: “The culture of Egypt starts on a magnificently high level and is later reduced to a tremendous degree by a consistent record of degeneration.” Of the jewelry and metal work of Egypt’s twelfth dynasty, a modern encyclopedia says: “European goldsmiths have rarely surpassed this work.”

What about the Bible and chemistry? Agreement again. The Bible speaks of gold and glass. It tells of acid-base reactions: “As one that taketh off a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon soda, so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart.” It speaks of the source of iron and copper: “Iron is taken out of