Quoted from "Don't Make Me Count to Three!" by Ginger Plowman, on Chapter Two - Defining Discipline, taken from "BOOK TALK" forum.)

"Many parents have bought into society's definition of discipline.  Because they relate the word to negative training, they would rather tolerate their children's behavior than correct it.  Those who do attempt to establish standards tend to miss the hearts of their children.  They simply try to control their children, focusing only on their outward behavior.  they have adopted the philosophy that if they can get their children to act right, then they are raising them the right way.

...we are not merely after outward actions, but inward cleansing.  We are after the very hearts of our children.

... While society relates discipline to an uncontrolled use of physical punishment, Biblical discipline involves love, the heart, and God's Word.  Because God is concerned with the heart, biblical discipline involves much more than outward behavior.  Biblical  discipline gets to the heart of the problem.  After all, if you can reach the heart, the behavior will take care of itself.  ... there is far more to parenting than getting our children to act right.  We have to get them to think right and to be motivated out of a love of virtue rather than a fear of punishment.  We do this by training them in righteousness.  Righteous training can only come from the Word of God.

... It's easy for us to tell our children that they have done wrong and chastise them for it, but it takes much more preparation, discipline, understanding, and self-control on our part to actually instruct them according to God's Word."  ~Ginger Plowman