discipline & correction
“I think that maybe you don’t like me very much.” Her head hung low as the sad statement slowly escaped from her lips.
I held her little sister, who was full of tears, and attempted to console her over a non-life-threatening injury that occurred during lunch.
Legs had been flying towards one another. “Girls, please stop kicking one another. Keep your legs to yourself and please turn around and eat your lunch.” I repeated those phrases a handful of times.
Crumbs were gathered under the big sister’s chair. Old enough to know how to sit properly in a chair and eat, she was the one who was instigating the event.
Calling attention to the baby she said, “She has yogurt all over herself! She’s making a big mess!”
“I know, but she’s still learning how to eat. She’s a baby, you’re a big girl. You know how to eat without making a mess. Please turn around and eat your lunch.”
Seconds passed before I heard a scream. The baby was on her way out of the chair, her tiny arm stuck between the rods on the back of the chair. I dropped the sponge in the sink and hurried over to rescue her from the somewhat self-inflicted catastrophe.
“I asked you to turn around and eat your lunch. I asked you to keep your legs to yourself. You know how you are supposed to behave, and you know that whatever you do your sister will do in return.”
My tone was short and abrupt. I was frustrated by the whole unnecessary situation. I rubbed the baby’s tiny arm, and that’s when she made her confession. My heart sank as I processed her statement and I tried to reassess the situation from her point of view.
“Honey, I like you so very much, but more than that I love you. And because I love you, I correct you. I can’t allow you to continue to disobey and disrespect me. When you don’t do what you know you’re supposed to, someone gets hurt. I love and like you both the same, but I expect you to act like a 4 year old and I expect her to act like a baby.”
“My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline,
and don’t be upset when he corrects you.
For the Lord corrects those he loves,
just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights.”
-Proverbs 3:11-12
You may be experiencing discipline or correction and wondering how God feels about you.
But the truth is that because God loves you, he disciplines you. God doesn’t long for you to continue in your sin and disobedience, further separating yourself from him.
God longs to draw you back into good and right relationship with himself. He desires that you live a life according to His word. And because He loves you and delights in you, He corrects you. Leading you back from the depths of darkness to walk in His goodness and light.
So don’t resist it. Accept the discipline and correction with the understanding that it is rooted in love. Because God’s discipline is perfect, and it is always for your good.
