"Col 3.21 says: 'Fathers, do not exasperate your children that they may not lose heart.' What is it that we can do to make sure that our children do not become angry and lose heart? On the other hand, what is the mistake that we make that provokes our children to wrath and causes them to lose heart?
Well, it's neither being too harsh or being too lax. In the Bible, what will cause children to lose heart is when they see that the father is not interested in them. If you do not have constant interaction with your children, your children will perceive that you're not interested in them.
Children want to please their fathers. They want to please mothers too, but particularly they want to please their fathers. And if you fathers do not show interest in your children, then they will lose heart and they won't care about what you say. In fact, there will be a lot of anger inside...
Having quality time with children is the key. Involvement is the key, both involved in discipline and involved in the positive side: reading to them, praying with them, doing things with them that count as much as you can. None of us do this perfectly, but involvement covers all kinds of errors. We make all kinds of mistakes in raising our kids, but those things are almost entirely covered up if we really have involvement with our kids in quality time - real wrestling with them. Problems almost always boil down to either leaving it all to mom or letting the kids run wild... Fathers are the key... Be involved with them as God is involved with His children."
- James B Jordan, Lectures on Ephesians 6
Here is Carl Honore: In Praise of Slowness
[for the record, I believe what God has taught us, that time is linear - not simply cyclical - but Honore's thesis stands because the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, and we are blessed when we slow down at the right moments.]
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