In Proverbs, Solomon gives the reader many words of the wisdom for which he was made famous. It is a text full of insights that are timeless and applicable as much today as they were thousands of years ago. One of the important areas of God's love is discipline, and this is absolutely one that we don't like to talk about....especially when we are the ones being disciplined. However, throughout the bible, God talks about disciplining His children, and how because of His love for us, He must discipline Christians when they stray from Him, and bring them back into His loving embrace.
Most of us can remember quite well being disciplined as children by our parents or grandparents. Some of us were spanked, some given time-out, and still others received different types of discipline, as every parent/guardian has a different technique. Some of us also needed a lot more supervision than others. ;-) At the time, we usually didn't feel that we deserved punishment, but as adults looking back, we see a different picture, and know that our parents had to discipline us in order to ensure our safety, and guide us as we grew into adults. Our parents loved us enough to discipline us, even though it broke their heart as much as it did our own. We can see this clearly now that we have grown up.
As adults, we don't often realize that we can still be disciplined, this time by our Heavenly Father. Pride keeps us from admitting that although we don't participate in childish behaviors from years gone by, we still behave sinfully as adults, and need to be disciplined when we fall short of God's expectations. Granted, God has a plan, and not everyone is punished (that we can tell), and God doesn't discipline us all in the same ways. For example, at one point in my life, everything was going well. I had a good job, was working on my doctorate, my family was well, my marriage was great, our finances were good, and I forgot about my relationship with the Lord, who had given me all those things. My prayer life almost ceased to exist, and I only went to church when I "felt" like it. I even avoided phone calls with my parents on Sundays or Monday mornings because I knew they would ask if I went to church or not! Talk about sinful!!
The Lord allowed me behave this way for so long, waiting for me to return to him (I suspect), and giving me time to correct myself. Unfortunately, I didn't do this on my own, and God disciplined me, and gave me the opportunity to see what I was really missing in my life, which was Him. I lost my job, didn't do as well in my courses as I could, our finances got pretty tight, and I spent a lot of days at home, alone, reflecting on all the bad things that were happening to me. All of a sudden, perspective came to me one day. I cannot remember how or why, but I started praying again with my son every night before bed, and I realized that God was disciplining me, and, I truly deserved it. I had neglected to give thanks and praise to God, who had made my life so great in the first place! Somehow, by realizing that God was disciplining me, and that I deserved it, joy came back into my life! God has since then helped me to begin to turn things around.
So, are we behaving in a way that needs discipline, or are we giving the proper thanks and worship to God, for all blessings? Job managed to thank God even in the worst despair I could imagine, and he was a Godly man! The truth is, we all need discipline at some point in our lives', and it's important that we know how to proactively correct ourselves before the Lord has to take some action to get us back in line. God wants us to be happy, but we can only truly be happy when we are living daily and walking with Him! He wants our attention, and the same love we have shown to our parents, as He is our Father, watching over our safety and well-being even at times that our earthly parents couldn't.
My earthly father instilled these words of caution about my attitude toward discipline: "Stop crying, or I'll give you something to cry about!" Praise God when we are disciplined because it shows His love for us!
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Dear God, thank you for your love for me! Thank you for loving me like a parent, and making sure that I follow in your footsteps, and make sure to discipline me when I get out of line. I want to please you, and deserve your blessings, and I ask that you guide me along the path that will lead me to your Kingdom one day. Thank you for the free will that we have to make decisions, and please give me the self-discipline to keep my free will in check and my life focused on Godly things. Please help me to be helping others with my own struggles, and please continue to discipline me when you see fit. In the name of Jesus I pray. - Amen
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