Ruled by Love Far More than by Fear

John G. Paton was a missionary to the New Hebrides (Vanuatu).  One of his sons, it is told in his biography, said this about him as a father:

The very discipline through which our father passed us was a kind of religion in itself.  If anything really serious required to be punished, he retired first to his "closet" for prayer, and we boys got to understand that he was laying the whole matter before God; and that was the severest part of the punishment for me to bear!  I coud have defied any amount of mere penalty, but this spoke to my conscience as a message from God.  We loved him all the more, when we saw how much it cost him to punish us; and, in truth, he had never very much of that kind of work to do upon any one of all the eleven--we were ruled by love far more than by fear.

May the fathers in our churches likewise live before the face of God with their children--that our children may be "ruled by love far more than by fear."  And may the discipline meted out be "a kind of religion in itself."  For the sake of the Name in the generations yet to be born!