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Dear friends,
Welcome to my blog. I am honored to have you visit. I hope you'll find my articles a blessing. I welcome your input and especially comments and questions.
I write as a Christian from Jerusalem, Israel about Biblical subjects.
I am particularly interested in the subjects of children, families, women's issues, corporal punishment, science and nature as these subjects relate to the Holy Scriptures.
For more information, see my website: www.biblechild.com
With every good wish - Samuel Martin
2 comments:
Samuel,
This is a very thought provoking and well written blog. I am an avid hunter and outdoors person and enjoy nature shows that showcase animal behavior such as you discuss here.
One difference between animals and humans is something you mention, but briefly, instinct. Animals are born "ready to go" but humans babies are not. A bear cub needs no training to walk and find its source of nourishment. It begins to interact with its siblings naturally without months of training from the mother bear. The same with the tiger. A deer fawn hits the ground ready to run. A human infant takes up to a year learning to just walk and has to be held to the breast.
The contrast between human and animal young is profound. Nearly all of the essential activities for survival are programmed into animals before birth while ALL have to be taught to the human.
A young bear cub has a built in desire to hunt and forage once weaned and is ready to kill for food, while requiring some fine tuning of hunting skills by the mother bear. It already knows what to do as demonstrated by the play among the siblings. If you watch a pair of cubs play it gets quite ferocious. They know how to use their natural weapons, teeth and claws. Often the mother bear has to intervene if one is being too rough. The cubs are learning and practicing lessons from one another that does not require the mother bears continual attention. The same for Tiger kits. Their play could be fatal to a young human child.
The punishments doled out by a mother bear can indeed be harsh as they are very strict. I have seen a mother bear growl, snap at and swat the cubs when there is a dangerous situation and the cub is not reacting to it appropriately. The same with the tiger. There are "problem children" in any family that require a little more "encouragement."
So to say that we can learn child rearing lessons from the mother bear, I respond, yes and no.
It is a balancing act requiring reason that God has given humans but that infants do not possess.
In nature a male bear will kill cubs in his path if he realizes they were sired by a different boar. Sometime parents joke about this but a human father and husband will lay down his life defending his family. That demonstrates a whole new level of love and care that God initiated and incorporated into marriage and the human family plan.
Statistics clearly demonstrate that when corporal punishment is abandoned the jails and prisons fill up with teens and young adults - as today in the U.S. They were never taught to fear to disobey the rules when young. There must then be something to "spare the rod and spoil the child." A swat on the infants (NOT A BABYS) behind when needed or a swat from the mother bears paw may bring a cry but neither will die and both may become better parents and creatures of God.
This quote from the American Bear Association web site on Black Bear behavior. It illustrates that a balance is necessary. It states, "The mother bear is affectionate, strict, protective and devoted to her cubs."
Noting - both affectionate and strict with her offspring.
Just my two cents worth.
Thanks for your blog Samuel.
Samuel, a little bit of research will show you that MLK's kids are not anything we would want our kids to be. One of his daughters contemplated suicide, MLK3 is said to be anti-social, lacking in discipline and unable to control his spending. Two of the siblings are suing the third (who started but never finished college) over that sibling allegedly stealing from their parent's estate... And the problems go on and on. Tales of Jr's promiscuity are numerous and I find it interesting that he is apparently your best example of somebody who agrees with your parenting style. I would think the results of his not spanking might motivate more people to begin spanking immediately.
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