I teach Sunday school to the world's best group of 5 year olds. They're not the best behaved (although most of them are pretty cool, and one of them told me I was probably the tallest person in the world), but they're mine and I adore them. I've been with them for years. I've changed their diapers and watched with great joy as they learned to read and ride their bikes.
I make a point to give every kid in my class a hug every week so I can make sure they're getting a hug every week. I hold their hands and tell them how very much Jesus loves them and how glad I am they're in my class. Then they grow up, and hopefully all of them will answer God's call on their lives, whether it's ministry or motherhood or accounting... whatever.
I teach them that character counts, and that it counts even more when it doesn't count.
So what's an appropriate place to draw the line?
Too often, I see caregivers of the weakest and the least of us terrified to use common sense. Recently, a video surfaced on YouTube of a kindergartner throwing a fit, and instead of the teacher spanking her, explaining to her what she did wrong and then giving her an opportunity to be good, the teacher was going to great pains to show she wasn't touching the little girl. Unable to calm her down, she ended up calling the cops to take the unruly child out in handcuffs.
Really?
This can't be the best we can do as society. Child abuse is unacceptable, but the death of common sense and the behavior that results has been producing a different kind of abuse. What favors are we doing our children by worshipping them? In what areas is it appropriate to expect them to have discipline when we refuse to instill any in them?
The death of common sense has far reaching implications. Congressmen are elected on promises of what they will give to people. Bankruptcy courts are full of people with no honor, who have decided that instead of taking the hard road out, cutting their lifestyles and doing what it takes to get their debts paid, they will take the hit on their credit. But what about the people who have to pay for the programs? What about the lenders who sold them goods in good faith? What about everybody who has lived inside the lines?
We must take common sense back. Political correctness has created a death of ideas, a fear of offense, a moratorium on the endless possibilities that come from a free exchange. Common sense starts by understanding we must be careful but then we must trust. We must hold people accountable to the highest standards, but we must call those standards out in them. People are capable of amazing things, more than we ever thought possible, and it starts with simple ideas like having children understand we deeply love them. Sometimes love looks like a hug and sometimes it looks like discipline. How much do we steal by withholding one of those?
