Monday, August 22, 2022

Between Pinnacle & Pit - Part 3


Monday, August 22, 2022

For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how.  But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness.  No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.  Hebrews 12: 10-11

We are continuing with our investigation of the gap between the pinnacle of genuine faith, and the pit of unbelief

The “pain” in the presence of discipline is rarely corporal.  For those of us born in the Baby Boom generation, or earlier, corporal punishment was a matter of fact.  School principals were known to keep a paddle in their desks for the more rowdy trespassers among us.  A “paddling” was affectionately known as applying the board of education to the seat of knowledge.  These days spanking your child will result in a visit from child services, or the police.  In some cases it could be grounds for divorce – a child “emancipating” from abusive parents.

The writer of Hebrews states the obvious, that earthly parents disciplined us early in life, doing the best they knew how.  Of course, that “best” is far from perfect.  No human parent is prepared for the complexities of raising another human.  Attempting to correct unacceptable behavior, or faulty thinking that will lead to harm for the child, is a minefield; too much, or too little attention, choice of words, or description of consequences, can have the opposite effect of that which was intended.  It is difficult, at best, to know what to do.

Parenting!  There are as many opinions on the subject as there are people.  And human opinions are useful, because they’re often based upon human experience, most of which will have been formed out of painful moments of failure.  Our culture has deduced that pain is the enemy, and children should be spared pain, including discipline.  But God’s Word declares that to be a false understanding of the nature of growing.  The writer to the Hebrews acknowledges how discipline may be a source of transitory discomfort, but the training for life which it produces is a peaceful harvest of right living.

My mother was an expert at allowing pain to instruct.  A prime example that stands out in my mind was when I was only six-years-old.  Up to that point, all my clothes had buttons – never a zipper.  Then came the light jacket with a zipper.  Mom was getting me out the door to catch the bus, and helped me into the windbreaker.  But when she went for the zipper, I pushed her hand away, announcing that I was a big boy now, and I would be doing the zipper.  With that, Mom backed-off and let me struggle fiercely with getting the two sides of my jacket together.  There were some interesting and frustrating moments of lack of coordination that we shall not bother describing, but the end is a priceless lesson which stands out after nearly 7 decades.  When I finally gave up trying to get the demonic zipper device hooked together, Mom was right there.  With a smile (and probably a stifled laugh) she calmly, slowly showed me how to put the zipper parts together.  She got it started, then stopped and said:  OK, now you finish it.  To this day I can never zip a zipper without thinking of Mom’s kind face.

The Hebrew writer was right – for a six-year-old, stubborn boy, learning your limits, and how to accept discipline, was painful.  But I found more that day than zipper wisdom – I harvested a lesson of peaceful parenting.

For You Today

Training and harvesting go together, sometimes in the smallest moments.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these:  Leaving the Door UNLOCKED for God's Spirit and Wisdom & Discipline      

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com     Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©   

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