Proverbs 3:11-12
Growing up I believe that I was whipped more than I was congratulated… I believe that scars and welts on my backside far outnumbered the hugs for a job well done… With that being said I look back on my childhood and thank my parents for correcting me back then instead of allowing me to suffer the consequences of my actions now… When a parent loves a child, correction is a form of throwing a life-line before it’s too late… There is nothing worse in life, than to lose the support of your parents… I can recall a time in my life when I was all about fitting the image and being amongst my friends… School was nothing to me and my grades showed that very thing. I can remember a time when I received my report card and it seemed as if my parents would have been proud just to see a “C” on the paper. There is one time in particular when my actions actually sunk in, my father looked at my report card and said, “If this is what you have decided that you want to be and do, fine…” I realized at that point that my father wasn’t going to beat me, he wasn’t going to ground me, but that he simply had come to the realization that his love to see me prosper was completely poured out. I could feel the disappointment, but more importantly I could feel the separation… The book of proverbs teaches us today that discipline is love, not that your parents love to beat you, but that they love you enough to try and get you on the right path and course.
God demonstrated in love for the Israelites every time they were in captivity, He demonstrated His love when Job lost everything, Daniel was in the Lion’s Den, David was pursued by Saul, Joseph was sold to slavery and Paul was blind and in the desert… We live in a day an age where kids have become unruly… They have taken the roles of leaders and independence without even understanding the direction in which they are headed. Every time we turn on the television we are bombarded with the news of another teen taking another’s life, our day seems to be saddened when we see kids having kids, or committing heinous crimes that seem to make us cringe at the thought! Why is it that this is happening, why is it that this generation is lost and confused? The answer, because there is no father in the household, no rules to obey, and no consequences to be faced! We have strayed so far from the normal approach to children that we have caused the turmoil we currently see. It use to be, when a child cursed he was popped or beaten, now the parents will laugh and say he is too young to understand what he is saying. It use to be that we learned lullabies to sing at early ages, now we are rapping at the age of 4 along with Gucci Mane or Lil Wayne! This passage taken from Proverbs reminds us of the importance of discipline, the fact that we need not despise chastisement. This generation is dying off because they have not been corrected, they have not been punished, but more importantly because they have not been loved.
These verses from Proverbs draw a parallel to the fact the correction equals love. When God punishes you, or corrects you it is in love! When he makes you face consequences its because He doesn’t want to see you fall by the wayside; but on the contrary, He wants to see you reach the heights and goals He has ordained for your life! So when you are dealing with hardships, when you are disciplined, when you are facing the corrective rod of God, know that He loves you and cares for you! One thing that I know is that if we don’t see the consequences of our actions, we will never understand the affect of the decisions that we make. As I stated earlier, the Israelites were in captivity multiple times, imagine where they would have been if God had not allowed them to be in bondage, imagine where Paul would have been if the Lord would not have humbled him on the Damascus road… Look at David and think about what he would have been doing if the Lord hadn’t struck down his son whom he had with Bathsheba… The image you draw in your mind about where these people would have been is seen right outside your door every day. They would have been lost, confused and falling by the wayside just like our societies and communities right now! If you are doing the things YOU want to do, without chastisement or correction, this is the time when you need to be concerned and worried…
ALL FOR HIS GLORY!
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