Parenting: Love & Discipline Post from The Gospel Coalition by Jeremy Pierre
Jeremy Pierre is assistant professor of biblical counseling at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and pastor of member care at Clifton Baptist Church . He and his wife, Sarah, have five children and live in Louisville, Kentucky. Twitter: @jeremypierre. Watch Your Conjunctions in Parenting "I love you, but you need to obey." Every English-speaking parent has said that phrase at some point or another. It's our attempt as parents to express commitment to our children even as we require them to obey: "I love you despite anything you do, but you also need to obey what I tell you." I'd like to take issue, however, with using the conjunction but between these phrases. Using but may be communicating something we don't want to say---namely, that there is some kind of conceptual opposition between "I love you" and "You need to obey." You may be dismissing me as a sharp-nosed grammarian at this point, but let me ex...