Words Of Encouragement For Your Day ( Wednesday 10/31/2012)

Do You Really Love Me?

Proverbs 3:11-12 New Living Translation (NLT)

¹¹ My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline, and don’t be upset when he corrects you.¹² For the Lord corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights.

My young adults know that I love them, even when they were children they understood this fact.  They did not nor do they understand this because I give or gave them everything they want, or ask for, or blindly believed everything they told me. It is and was because I have learned that love envelopes many things, and some of those things are discipline, responsibility, and accountability.  I have learned to correct what is detrimental to them as people and to their walk and relationship with Christ.  I have challenged their thinking, chooses and behavior, but not without positive reinforcement and being present as a guide, mentor and example.  Love as it concerns being a parent is about setting a standards in and out of our home and ensuring that we are utilizing God’s word as the measuring stick.  My young people are far from perfect, but they have standards, morals, they treat people well; they are drug free baby free, alcohol free and they have respect and care for others and their right to be respected as a human being.  Generally, I tried to raise them in a manner so that they were not a teacher’s problem or the systems issue. I have come to understand that a child without boundaries and discipline is like a car with no brakes, it will not stop and it is bound to wreck and destroy many things in its path.

          As I thought about the joy that today will bring for children because of harvest fest and collecting candy, all of the fun and games, I also thought about how God allows us to learn lessons, and learn the joys and sorrows of life as His children. He teaches us about appreciation through allowing us to be abased and non-abased.  He teaches us about sacrifice because His son Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice and example.  He teaches us about love because He is the quintessential representation of love, but He also teaches us that love comes with responsibility and boundaries.  He teaches us right and wrong, through His words, His love and the discipline or correction that He applies to our lives or situation every time we step out of what is appropriate and in the constructs of His will.  So if God is our example for parenting, why are we so off base raising our children?  Why have we strayed so far away from following the pattern that He has set before us?  Too many parents are allowing the inmates to run the asylum.  We have taken to believing everything that comes out of our children’s mouth, we are letting them do anything and everything we have taken away the discipline and boundaries instead of understanding as it says in Proverbs 22:15, “A youngster’s heart is filled with foolishness, but physical discipline will drive it far away.”  Just as God holds us accountable we have to begin to do the same with our children.  God is our Father; it is only when we hit a place of maturity and obedience that He becomes friend as well.  We have too many parents trying to be friend, and not parent, playmate and not an authority figure.  We are not commanding respect from our children we are condoning disrespect in them and that is spilling over in their behavior at school, play, church and other environments that they enter.

          If God is our father and He disciplines us because He loves us, why are we trying to show love with things and lack or boundaries and responsibility.  I am not saying that we become so harden and detached from our children that discipline becomes all we know how to do, but just as God shows us, sacrifices for us, and leads us in love, he balances it with correction, rebuke, instruction and discipline that may produce consequences to our actions and disobedience.  If we think for one moment that our lack of disciplining our children does not affect the greater good, just look at history, read your bible, and then you will know how untrue that is.  God has given us a great responsibility, when He allows us to have children, just as He cares for us and sets standards, for us as a Father we should be doing the same.  Be the model and love your children to life, just as God does with us, through consequences and reward, through tenderness and toughness, through honesty and truth and facing who our children are and not denying who they are and who they will become without being disciplined in love! Step up, step in and be the parent God is calling you to be and the one that He is to you!