Answer section<\/a> of your website. I wanted to say thank you for your wonderful words on how to raise and discipline children. It has been very helpful to me. It is a particular challenge to raise older boys, but I find that a firm hand can work wonders. I have a similar method as to what you described as I usually give them a choice of punishments, such as grounding, spanking, etc. I don’t have a lot of other Christian fathers to talk to about this very important subject. In particular, I am always looking to trade advice about the proper use of discipline and the application of rules. I do so admire your attitude that it’s acceptable to spank an older boy. I totally agree. If you would be interested in corresponding via email or chatting I would be honored. We can all use the suppport of other men and fathers.<\/p>\n\tAnswer:<\/h2>\n
I very much appreciate the kind words, especially since most of my correspondence deals with rebuttals. I would very much enjoy corresponding on parenting issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Greetings, I recently came across your church’s website and wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed it. I am the father of two teenage boys, 13 and 15. I came to Christianity late in life, so it has only been in the last few years that I have begun raising my sons…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[127,29,107],"class_list":["post-2103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-about-this-site","tag-parenting","tag-raising-children"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":92089,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-still-possible-to-raise-godly-children\/","url_meta":{"origin":2103,"position":0},"title":"Is It Still Possible to Raise Godly Children?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 13, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Darrell Smelser via\u00a0InLight Media Marriage is hard on its own. Parenting is a tough job in and of itself. However, with the world being so divided and complex, cultivating a godly family feels even more challenging these days. How do we navigate the various challenges that come with parenting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Parenting"","block_context":{"text":"Parenting","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/parenting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92445,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-we-keep-our-younger-children-from-imitating-their-older-rebelious-sibling\/","url_meta":{"origin":2103,"position":1},"title":"How do we keep our younger children from imitating their older rebelious sibling?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I wanted to write in with a quick update regarding \"How do we deal with a rebellious teenage daughter?\": Our daughter was less than enthusiastic about this idea at first. We decided to make it a small group of teens, and she was mortified at the idea of us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14004,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-we-tell-our-children-not-to-mention-to-other-people-that-they-get-spanked\/","url_meta":{"origin":2103,"position":2},"title":"Should we tell our children not to mention to other people that they get spanked?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have greatly enjoyed all the information and insights that you share on this page. My husband and I are raising three sons. We use spanking as one of our disciplinary tools with the boys, especially for the 3 Ds - deliberate disobedience, disrespect, and dishonesty. Recently one of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Childhood"","block_context":{"text":"Childhood","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/parenting\/childhood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31457,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-we-require-our-sons-to-wear-lederhosen-year-round\/","url_meta":{"origin":2103,"position":3},"title":"Should we require our sons to wear lederhosen year-round?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Should we still require our sons to wear short leather shorts year-round? We are from Bavaria in the south of Germany near the Alps. In the past, it was very normal that boys wore the traditional short leather shorts with woolen knee socks. We followed this tradition not to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14011,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-should-be-the-punishment-for-breaking-a-window-accidentally\/","url_meta":{"origin":2103,"position":4},"title":"What should be the punishment for breaking a window accidentally?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have two twin boys, both aged 15. My wife and I both agree that the right way to parent is to spank when necessary with the rod. Recently they have been getting into a lot of trouble together, and yesterday they broke a window (whilst playing ball inside\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Parenting"","block_context":{"text":"Parenting","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/parenting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8052,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-spank-my-boys-for-breaking-a-window\/","url_meta":{"origin":2103,"position":5},"title":"Should I spank my boys for breaking a window?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have two twin boys, both aged 15. My wife and I both agree that the right way to parent is to spank when necessary with the rod. Recently they have been getting into a lot of trouble together, and yesterday they broke a window (whilst playing ball inside\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}