don't shrug off discipline...

Sometimes I get tired of disciplining my kids. It takes so much work and it seems I am often correcting the same wrong behavior. I wonder if they will ever get it. It would be easier in the moment to just ignore the wrong behavior, but I know for the long run it is important to deal with the offence and gently correct them.

God does the same with me. This passage hit me this morning and I wanted to share it.
Again I got it from Biblegateway.com, The Message, Hebrews 12 this morning.


Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children? My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either. It's the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God's holy best. At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

I am all about well behaved kids. They are a joy to be with. I know that it is worth the investment that the discipline takes. I wonder if I am more of a joy to be with when I embrace discipline in my life. Maybe if I saw discipline in my life with that same perspective, I wouldn't resist it so much.