Proverbs 23:12-14 (ESV)
12 Apply your heart to instruction
and your ear to words of knowledge.
13 Do not withhold discipline from a child;
if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.
14 If you strike him with the rod,
you will save his soul from Sheol.
Saying 12 and the whole of Proverbs remind us that the heart and the ear work together. The ear is for hearing and paying attention to wisdom, while the heart is for putting into practice learned truth. Saying 13 teaches the father to instruct his son that he must discipline his own children. When a child is disobedient, the wise son, acting now as a godly father, must punish wrongdoing. To withhold painful discipline from a child is wicked. Though abuse, including fits of rage and exploding in anger, is unacceptable and sinful, we must never shy away from loving correction when it comes to parenting our children. The wise person leans upon the Lord rather than her own understanding. We can think that because we agree with biblical truth, we are on the path of righteousness. But the wise father repeatedly taught his son that the correct response to God’s word requires both listening to and obeying the commands of Scripture.