Most of us aren’t very good at taking discipline. We’ve got baggage from our past - the varying degrees to which discipline was not given out in a healthy way - plus, we’ve got our pride which says, I don’t like to be corrected!
A couple of things stuck out in today’s reading… First, that God’s discipline is future-oriented, designed to keep us from making the same bad choice again. It’s never punishment; why do we feel like it is? We’ve got an enemy who whispers lies in our ears, that we deserve our punishment, and that we’ve been somehow lowered on God’s scale because we messed up.
Why do I discipline my kids? Part of it is in their best interest, and part of it is a little selfish… Sure, I want them to grow up to be likeable, responsible, law-abiding people. I’m responsible for how they turn out, to some degree. But also, the more I follow through on the consequences I’ve promised, the better my kids behave. When I don’t, when I give them the proverbial inch, they take the mile, and then we’re all miserable.
That brings me to the second thing, that God disciplines us out of love, because He cares what we turn out like. I’ve been known, on occasion, to say this to my kids: I love you too much to let you act this way. What would happen if I never corrected my children? They would be brats and nobody would want to play with them.
This is the part where I look in the mirror… God loves me enough not to let me act like a brat. What if He did? Nobody would want to play with me. He’s looking out for my future, and He’s doing it out of love.
Is today’s blog about being a parent, or a child of God? Yup, you guessed it – both.
No comments:
Post a Comment