How did your family correct children when they made a mistake? In love, my parents did not spare the rod. I even remember relatives opining about a child who was misbehaving, “What that one needs is a good whipping!” Usually in our family this was pronounced “whoopin.” Having recently finished “Hooked on Phonics” I spelled it that way on a paper in third grade. My teacher, Mrs. Hergenrother corrected my spelling, but thankfully not with corporal punishment. We should all lament the misuse of discipline which has resulted in generational transmission of abuse in some families.
How does the heavenly Father use discipline? This may make us uncomfortable. Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs as a manual for his many children to grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. He wanted his children to become God’s children, so he encouraged them to receive God’s loving discipline. Instead of getting angry and resentful, Solomon encourages us to receive the Lord’s discipline in our lives gratefully as a sign of his love and delight in us.
Not only in Proverbs but in the New Testament book of Hebrews, the writer picks up this theme of God’s discipline. Quoting these verses in Hebrews 12:5-6, the writer continues by encouraging us to submit to the discipline of our heavenly Father who disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness. God’s discipline is productive offering a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who are trained by it.
In the 1980’s, Debby Boone of “You Light Up My Life” fame sang a popular Christian song in which she invited God’s discipline in her life, singing, “If I should ever deny you, and I begin to wander from your path, use your rod and lead me home.” How is God disciplining us today? How are we responding to it?
What if we endured hardship as discipline? (Hebrews 12:7). Not every painful event is sent by God to punish or chasten us. Some suffering is caused not by our actions but by the wrong choices of others (like abusive discipline) or as part and parcel of living in a fallen world (like the proliferation of cancer cells). God does not cause all of our pain. However, God can work in our painful circumstances to draw us closer to himself. On other occasions, when we rebel, our God disciplines us in love for our good to make us holy like Jesus. For this, we can be grateful today.
