Overheard in Pizza Hut at lunch, as a mother tries to control her child:
Honey, stop that! It doesn’t please Jesus when you do that.
Fear of God?
Siliconchef by Brian Richardson
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I’ve heard that done by devout Christian parents. I don’t like it one iota, because it implies that God/Jesus could ever love any of us any less because of our actions.
I’ll stop before I rant.
You’re right Geof, Jesus won’t love us any less because of our actions. But the statement the mother made didn’t imply that at all. Its probably true that the child’s behavior was unacceptable at the time and he (or she) wasn’t obeying his mother. This breaks the Fifth commandment which is "Honor thy father and thy mother and thou shall live a long life in the land the Lord your God has given to you". Breaking any commandment is displeasing to God, so theologically, the mother’s statement was correct.
The misapplication of dogma is no substitute for parenting skills …