“Why do Mommy and Daddy discipline you?” I sometimes ask my children. And they respond, “Because you love us.” Depending on the situation the tone of their voice is different, but they always know this. When tempers flare and tears flow it’s sometimes hard to remember, but discipline is an act of love.
We all know that parents who care are parents who lovingly discipline. And parents who don’t discipline their children, probably don’t care as much as they proclaim. I can also look back on my childhood and understand that discipline worked for my good. And as I look around at an increasingly unloving society, I see unloved and undisciplined children running rampant.
Now, this brings me to a passage of Scripture I read a few days ago. It’s Amos 3:2. It struck me like a loving rock to the face.
““I have chosen you alone from all the clans of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all your sins.””
Amos 3:2 NET
Now, a quick scan of the Book of Amos will reveal a whole host of pain being sent from the heavens like a 2 ton Lucha Libre. Except this was years of pain and suffering instead of an exotic high flying elbow drop. This discipline would not last forever because it was not Final Judgment and there is something more important to health and wealth.
When my child gets rebellious and doesn’t get to play with her friends, she is having to forego a sort of temporal pleasure for the sake of building character that is pleasing to God. Because the primary goal is not pleasure in this life, but to honor God. That is what happens, in a much bigger way when God disciplines us.
When I undergo sickness or hardship due to discipline it is not that God is taking away earthly pleasures to watch me suffer. It is because He loves me and knows what is best for me. The primary goal and best thing for me is to honor Him. And since my Heavenly Father loves me and knows what is best for me, I sometimes have to undergo discipline.
R. Dwain Minor
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