Read Proverbs 22:15  Oh no!  Here is another one of those verses that talk about spanking!  We don't want to talk about spanking, but the truth is: it works.  Our verse says that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child.  Is that true?  If it is, then may be our need for spankings may also be true.  I have had four little children and can answer this question accurately.  None of my children had to be taught how to say, "Mine!"  They were just naturally selfish.  Actually, they had to be taught to share and be nice.  They didn't want to share their things with other children.  They had to be taught to share.  I did not have to teach my children how to lash out and hit other children.  I never had to teach them to bite other children while they were in the nursery.  Quite the opposite, I had to teach them to be nice; I had to teach them to be kind and gentle to others.  That is because we were all born with a sin nature.  We got this sinful nature from our great, great, great, great-grandfather, Adam.  We are sinners by nature and we are sinners by choice.  We all sin because we got our sin nature from Adam and we sin because we choose to sin.  We like to sin.  We like to be selfish.  We like to have our own way.  And our verse says that when we are spanked, we have a sudden awareness that sin is no fun.  We connect our sin with the pain of the spanking.  This is called cause and effect.  Every effect in our life has a cause.  If we are kind to others, we will have friends.  If we are mean to others, we will not have any friends.  This is the cause and effect.  If we disobey God, He will have to punish us.  If we obey God, He will bless us and will not have to punish us.  Again, cause and effect.  When our parents do what God says and punish us for our naughtiness, we don't like the punishment.  So we don't do those naughty things.  We don't like the effect, so we change the cause that led to the effect we didn't like.  We do the right things and we like that we are not spanked.  Again, cause and effect.  Our spankings quickly drive our foolishness out of our thinking because we don't like spankings.  We learn to be good because we don't like what happens when we are naughty.  Our parents must correct us because God tells them to.  And God corrects us and our parents when we disobey because He loves us and wants us to do what is right.  If we are smart; if our parents are smart; we will obey God and avoid correction.  God loves us and wants us to be right and to live a happy life.  But in order to learn, we need to be corrected.  let's learn from our spankings so that we will not have to get many more.