Today’s passage is Hebrews 12:1-13. Apollo exhorts us to run the race of faith, disentangling ourselves from sin and keeping our eyes on Jesus, who endured to the very end. Jesus’ example should encourage us. We need to endure the discipline of our hardship because God is treating us like sons, chastening us temporarily for an eternal blessing.
How do you discipline your children?
How were you disciplined by your parents?
I was not a terribly obedient child.
Apparently, I received many spankings from my father, but I don’t remember a single one.
I do remember an incident with my mother in France.
It was a cold day and I wanted to go outside and play in my shirt and no jacket.
I justified my decision by pointing out a little boy who was outside in his shirt only, a red plaid one.
My mother said he was dressed that way because his mother didn’t care about him.
She only gave him, a handful of sugar for his lunch, my mother said.
His mother didn’t love him, she concluded.
I had to wear my jacket, but I thought the other boy had a better deal.
I disciplined my own children poorly. I was inconsistent. I was either too harsh or too lenient.
I just couldn’t seem to find the right balance.
Part of the reason was that I tried to treat them all equally and not individually.
This was because they compared each other’s punishment and always felt they were being more unjustly treated.
“It’s not fair!” is children-speak for “I want to be special.”
The other reason for my inconsistent discipline was that I didn’t have a clear goal for the discipline.
God discipline’s me for my salvation and growing holiness.
I disciplined my children out of a vaguely humanistic goal of courtesy, independence, and general niceness, mostly to me.
I didn’t discipline them with their salvation in mind.
I didn’t discipline them for God.
And I didn’t discipline them by listening to God myself.
I disciplined them with myself very much in mind.
So I disciplined them out of selfishness and pride.
I reaped the rewards of that misbegotten attitude.
Application: aim for the consistency of salvation in all my disciplining
Lord, let me not be a reed bending in the wind. Let me stand according to your standards.
