Discipline is Direction

When raising children, we always need an excellent example to follow, and God is the perfect example, so why look further? Hebrews 12:⁴ In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. ⁵ And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,⁶ because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son. God disciplines, or gives direction to those He loves, and in that direction we have to make a choice. Will we follow His perfect direction or reject said direction.

As born-again believers, we want to follow the "narrow road" provided by God and believe He is leading us on a better path. This attitude in following His direction trickles all the way down to our children, so follow God's Word about parenting, and your children will receive the direction they need to live a life of purpose and direction. If you are lazy about passing these great truths down to your children, then they will live a life in limbo, without enough love from their parents to help guide them. It hurts me to see parents who have given in to the world's way of disciplining children, and their lack of direction or discipline shows on those same children later in life. And if they don't follow God's Word in the area of parenting, all they do is pass on faulty direction for another generation.

Our world might even say, "Don't stifle a child's creativity by restricting them." To which God's word speaks in verse 11: ¹¹ No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Training involves even "whipping" your children to help them get the point of discipline and following that whipping with wisdom from the Word of God. In other words, have a reason for the direction or discipline and let the Word of God back you up. The writer of Proverbs shares some wisdom in Proverbs 13: ²⁴ Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them. Just whipping your children with no direction is another lazy way to parent, because you don't care enough to take the next step and truly "guide" them in the way they should, as God does us, His children.

All of these line up with God's initial instructions that are centered around the direction we get when receiving Jesus. There are restrictions for all who call Jesus Savior, and those restrictions are put in place to grow us in our faith walk. Matthew 7:¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. In a Godless world, we will many times choose the path of least resistance and try to "hedge" on what God's Word says, but that won't work for a born-again believer who has the Holy Spirit guiding them. It is not by chance that the following verses in Matthew 7 warn us not to follow false prophets, and many of those false prophets are trying to influence us in their way when it comes to parenting. God's way is the only way to success when parenting a child. I have a Bible Study I wrote called The Parenting Legacy, and it speaks to all of the ingredients it takes to give your children direction, and discipline is the central theme of the whole thing.

God is not silent when it comes to parenting, and we should follow His perfect plan, so the next generation has the tools and life lessons to live a life of victory and purpose.

The Pilgrimage Continues,

David Warren