“False natural love blinds parents so that they have more regard for the bodies of their children than they have for their souls.  It was because of this that the sage said, “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him” (Proverbs 13:24)…..Therefore, it is of the greatest importance for every married man to pay closer, more thorough, and continuous attention to the health of his child’s soul than to the body which he has begotten, and to regard his child as nothing else but an eternal treasure God has commanded him to protect, and so prevent the world, the flesh, and the devil from stealing the child away and bringing him to destruction.  For at his death and on the day of judgment he will be asked about his child and will have to give a most solemn account.”

Quoted from Martin Luther’s “A Sermon on the Estate of Marriage.”