The Absurdity of Reasoning with Sheep

My wonderful co-leader and I were discussing child rearing last night at the One28 Staff Meeting. We were musing on what the Bible says about sheltering your children- how much is too much? How much is not enough? When are you stagnating growth, and where are you being simply irresponsible? I mentioned one of Tolkien's statements in his essay "On Fairy-Stories" where he is defending the importance of fantasy. He says:

"Children are meant to grow up, and not to become Peter Pans. Not to lose innocence and wonder, but to proceed on the appointed journey...it is one of the lessons of fairy stories that on callow, lumpush, and selfish youth peril, sorrow, and the shadow of death can bestow dignity, and even sometimes wisdom."

Well, Tolkien is dandy, but I started pondering what Scripture said about 'sheltering' or 'not sheltering' your children. I typed in "rod" and "Shepherd's" and "use" into Google, and I got some pretty interesting articles. Many pointed out that "spare the rod" needs to be balanced with Psalm 23 ("Your rod and your staff, they comfort me"). So here is a sundry list of things that a shepherd's rod does:

Comforts (Ps. 23)
Protects (drives off predators like wolves)
Directs (leads sheep to good grazing)
Drives away foolishness (literally, as sheep are foolish, but also figuratively - Prov. 22:15)
Gives wisdom (goes with driving away foolishness; Prov 29:15)
Marks authority (i.e. the one with the rod = one in authority. This symbolism is likewise used with God and His authority over - well - everything.)

Many of the articles lamented how "rigid" Christians take the few verses in Proverbs and Psalms to defend physical punishment. One had an interesting point that the word used for "child" in Proverbs is the Hebrew "adolescent" word that spans about 10 years of age to late 20's (NOTE: must ask Sean about this). That means that, at least in the Hebrew construction, parents wouldn't even begin physically disciplining children until they were teens.

Yet, I wonder if any of these wonderful commentators have ever met a sheep. Have they ever tried to reason with one? Make one move? I've never had sheep, but I've had goats, and they're right up there - they would try to run through our electric fence, get stuck, and then just sit there bleating. Both were girls - one thought it was a boy. They assumed all things were goats, so when they escaped they would try head-butting the elderly farmer's wife next door as she shook her apron at them and screamed, "stop eating my apples!"

Honestly, though the rod often comforts, guides, directs, and protects - well - sheep are insanely stupid, and sometimes you just need to whack them on the head. Same goes for horses. If you don't (very, very quickly) teach a horse that when they willfully disobey there are consequences (a smack on the neck, perhaps), they, rather early on, realize they weigh about 1,000 pounds more than you, and they don't have to listen. I imagine the same is true with teenagers.

Yet I digress. If you don't let your children try and fail - if you don't allow them to be in challenging situations (not sinful ones, mind you, but challenging), how will they ever grow? Plants have to push through dirt and endure hail, wind, rain, bugs, small children, cats, dogs, (my goats), and other competing plants to eventually produce their fruit. Wouldn't the same apply to us? If Paul says to "run the race" with perserverence - well - to become a strong athlete mentally and physically you have to push yourself - get outside of your comfort zone. My entire two month stint on the UW Women's Crew Team (think Amazons that eat small mammals for breakfast), taught me that to run with everything you have, you must suffer incredibly. To row with strength, you must endure agony. If you keep precious things always bubblewraped, how will they be broken and remolded? How can they be refined?

My final thought is this: Matthew says that, when the one sheep escapes, the Shepherd knows where it has gone. Well, our good Shepherd knows we're going to escape - and He lets us! He could have just broken our legs so we wouldn't move (don't laugh, shepherds have done it). But he lets us run hogwild towards danger. But He saves us - always. I want my kids to fall out of tree houses and make mistakes - I want them to learn responsibility.

To be salt, you need to mix with a little pepper. To bring light to the darkness - well - you have to go to the darkness. So in the words of the famous theologians, The Newsboys, get "outta the shaker and onto the plate." Ironically, one of my goats was named Pepper...