The Princess with one of the young girls she got to know. Pic courtesy of someone else on the trip!I am trying to upload two South Dakota pics again. We will see how it goes today. It took forever, but they finally came in!
"I correct and discipline everyone I love." Revelation 3:19 nlt
None of us like to be disciplined. As parents we understand that we need to discipline our children. Discipline will help protect them from harm, make life easier for them and make them more enjoyable to be around. God's discipline does the same for us.
I am not saying that we will never get hurt, that life will always be easy and everyone will love to be around us. Life brings its own hurts and struggles. I feel that when we don't obey God, don't live in a way pleasing to Him, we bring additional hurts and struggles. Who wants that? None of us do, but, being human we do get ourselves into situations that could have been avoided!
God disciplines each one of us differently, too. He knows what form of discipline will get my attention and what is needed to speak to the next person. When our children were young, you could send the Princess to her room for an hour and she thought the world had come to an end. She would sit in there and cry her eyes out. She was mad, she was ticked off and quite often the misdeed that earned her a trip to her room did not happen again. Trucker on the other hand was a different story. If you sent him to his room, he laid on his bed and went to sleep. Two or three hours later he would be asking from his bedroom door if he could come out! If I knew he was tired, I would send him to his room. If he was not tired, I needed to find other means of disciplining.
Thankful for a God who knows each and every one of us, who knows every hair on our heads, and knows how to discipline each of us. He knows what will get my attention. Just like a child, I don't like to be disciplined, but when you look back at things, you understand why He did what He did. I know we are supposed to be thankful for being disciplined, as that is what matures us, but we will save all of that for another post!
T. and the Princess in the Badlands. Pic courtesy of someone else on the trip!
It's nice to hear you admit that discipline is a good thing. You are getting wiser as you age. I remember when you wanted to run away from home. It's one of my favorite memories. (Not because you were running away!) I remember you sitting on the neighbors step for an hour with your bandana full of your PJ's and no other clothes. You packed yourself. I pulled weeds and you sat. For an hour. Then you were ready to come home. I wasn't. You sat another half hour. Then we both cried and you came home, and never ran away again. Discipline isn't just hard on the one getting it. Maybe we both learned something that day.
ReplyDeleteHow well I remember that day! You were a meanie back then!! You are oh so right, though, the discipliner hurts just as much, if not more than, the disciplinee.
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