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Sunday, December 9, 2007

Zoos, Mother Lions, and Parents

I love to go to the zoo. I particularly like watching lions with their cubs. I could stand watching them for hours. Baby lions pounce on their mother’s twitching tails. They crawl all over her, even on her head. All the while she lies there patient and calm. But let one of them cross some unseen line and you’ll hear a deep throaty growl. If the cub does not heed her and continues to wander away, or to pursue whatever it is she has asked him to stop doing, she will get up, cross to them, put a restraining foot on the offender or pick him up by the scruff of the neck and return him to the place he should be.

All that pouncing and stalking and jumping looks like a lot of play, but I am told that it is training for hunting and therefore feeding himself later on. It’s important and so mama lets the cubs go as far as she can, seemingly paying little attention. But all the while she is watching and knows exactly what is going on. The cubs live under the confines of discipline and they will keep the rules.

I’ve often thought that the discipline of our children needs to be more like that of a mother lion. It needs to be firm, but hidden until it’s needed. The child needs to experiment and wander and play and learn, but it must be within the lines of discipline and safety.

We don’t see it in the zoo, but in the wild there comes a time when the mother must teach her young ones to hunt. And how does she do that? By yelling at them? By belittling their efforts? Of course not. She teaches them by example. She models the hunting behavior to them and they learn. Their survival depends on it.

See any comparisons here? We too are models for our children and we can’t fool them with our sincerity or lack of it. We have to teach our children how to live and how to have faith. What we believe and how we live out our faith has to be a natural part of who we are and how we live. And that brings us to an important principle given in the Bible.

“Always remember these commands I give you today. Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and walk along the road. Talk about them when you lie down and when you get up. Write them down and tie them to your hands as a sign. Tie them on your forehead to remind you. Write them on you doors and gates.” Deut 6:6-9).

The process of teaching described here is very natural. It happens in the everyday of life. It does not happen just in church or school, it happens when you are hiking and when you are eating and at bedtime and when you are brushing your teeth in the morning. It happens as you and your family live together.

Go to the zoo and watch what’s happening there. It’s a great lesson on parenting.

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