"There are no juvenile delinquents; there are only delinquent parents."
Bishop Fulton Sheen
In posts 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 we saw the importance of Example, Parental Advice/ Instructions and Discipline in the Parenting Vocation which is Love personified. When the first letters of Love (L), Example(E), Parental Advice/Instruction(A) and Discipline(D) are arranged, we get the acronym LEAD, which is the secret for the formation of children.
When a tasty dish is cooked, it is not just the cook who makes it possible. Without the right recipe and right ingredients, the dish would be insipid. Likewise, in parenting three essentials work together - Example,Parental Advice and Disciple - all done with Love. If one is missing, or below par, the result is not satisfactory.
Consider a parent who is a strict disciplinarian - rule enforcing. That is the good part. What if he misses out on the spirit of parenting, caught up only in rules. He
would do the children grave damage. And that is the bad part. In the same way, an
instruction-spouting parent whose example is poor, will not inspire her children to
follow her good words. Good example is not just powerful in itself, but doubles for
parental instruction. Besides, it lends special meaning to discipline. A child
disciplined by a parent whose example cannot be faulted, knows that his argument
against discipline is porous. When parents fail in the three key areas, they become
delinquent (to borrow a term from the Bishop).
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