Shepherding A Child's Heart Rhetorical Analysis

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Many parents question their ability to communicate effectively with their children. This is especially evident among parents with teenagers. As an elder, I have been in many conversations with parents answering the question “How can I influence my child?” Through our discussions, they expressed their inability to communicate effectively with their children and often stated that their child has become “like a stranger”. What these parents desired was to know how they could biblically influence the thoughts, attitudes, and actions of their child through every stage of development with proper biblical communication.
Because,
Every parent should know that a newborn child is a miraculous gift from God. However, in our modern day our culture has …show more content…

Infants may have a very limited vocabulary (both usage and understanding) which may lead to inadequate verbal communication. This does not give parents an excuse not to influence their infants through proper biblical communication. Even at this stage of life, the infant must be taught biblical truths and the parent must be wise in their communication of such truths. In Shepherding a Child’s Heart, Dr. Tripp explains that the training objective for infancy to childhood is to teach him “he is an individual under authority” (Tripp 129). Parents are to influence their child’s thoughts from a worldview of autonomy to one of submission. They are to present this truth in such a way that makes submission a beautiful thing as to influence their child’s attitudes about it. As mentioned before, verbal communication is limited at this stage in the child’s development; therefore, God has ordained other methods of biblical communication. The use of the rod (physical communication) is a biblical principle that is prescribed in Scripture. According to Proverbs 23:14 the rod is used for correction and discipline of the child. Physical communication is the primary source of influencing infants’ thoughts, attitudes, and actions. These physical communications can be positive in nature, such as hugging, kissing, and cuddling (things go well when sin is not present). Parents also use physical communication for correction such as spanking and restraining. The use of physical communication by parents enables the child to make an immediate connection between unwanted actions or attitudes with consequences. It is nearly impossible to verbally reason with an infant about the consequences of sin; however, physical correction effectively brings about this awareness. The combination of verbal and physical communication enables parents to influence their infants’ thoughts, attitudes, and actions away from a

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