STAYING ON THE RIGHT ROAD

BIBLE PASSAGE:
“Blessed is the man you discipline, O Lord,
the man you teach from your law.”
(Psalm 94:12)

MEDITATION:
If you enjoy being disciplined, raise your hand. No hands raised?
If you feel that discipline is good for your children, raise your
hand. Lots of hands in the air.

Why do we feel that discipline is good for our children? It helps
them to know where the boundaries are, doesn’t it? Without
discipline, they would be confused about how far they can go
in doing wrong.

If there are no boundaries, then they will most likely continue to
do wrong as they try to find the limits of what they are allowed
to do or not do. Not only that, but their disobedience will continue
and possibly get worse.

We do our children an injustice when we fail to provide them with
the discipline they need. Without it, they can develop a pattern of
‘living without limits’ that can put them in danger of getting hurt
when they are small, and possibly making their own rules when
they are older.

Discipline teaches our children respect – respect for others and
respect for the laws of the land. They learn that there will be
consequences to the things they do, or don’t do. If our children
cannot depend on us to establish the boundaries for them, they
may very well find someone else to show them the limits, which
could be much more liberal than what is safe and reasonable for
them.

Parental discipline is a team effort and should never be left as
the responsibility of only one parent. Why? Because that one
parent may not be around them when they need discipline.

Some parents will say things like,
    “Wait until you mother gets home”,
or
    “Wait until your father gets home”.
However the discipline needs to be applied whenever they are doing
wrong so they can understand the association of doing wrong and
receiving discipline.

One of the primary reasons we discipline our children is because
we love them. We don’t want to see them get hurt in any way and
we don’t want to see them live a life with the idea that there are
no rules.

Discipline is not an enjoyable action by parents because we want
to be friends with our children. However, we can be friends with
them and enjoy the fun times, but there will be times when we are
required to be a parent to them as well.

God also disciplines those He loves. He wants us to understand
there are limits to what we should do and not do. If God didn’t
discipline us, then we would not understand and obey the
boundaries He has established for His children. Without
knowing His limits, we establish our own rules and fail
to respect God’s laws.

The Psalmist gives us a proper perspective of God’s discipline:
    “Before I was afflicted, I went astray;
      but now have I kept thy word”
      (Psalm 119:67)
David learned the importance of obeying God after he suffered
great sorrow and a lot of affliction.

When God sees us straying and becoming disobedient, He loves
us enough to ‘get our attention’ and guide us back to obeying
His laws instead of continuing to live by our rules. Why?

Because He knows what is best for us, He desires fellowship with
His children, and He wants to bless us for being obedient. God
doesn’t want us to go down a destructive path that separates us
from our relationship with Him. He doesn’t want to see us hurt
ourselves, or be hurt by others as a result of bad choices.

When we discipline our children, we hope that they will learn
from their punishment and start establishing better guidelines
for themselves. God has the same desire for His children.

If our own limits are wrong and too wide, then His discipline
is designed to help us shrink our boundaries to coincide with
the ones He has established for us.

Of course Satan will tempt us to resent God’s efforts to help us
and he will encourage us to rebel when we are disciplined. We
have to avoid the traps of the evil one and focus on the benefits
of being disciplined.

We need to be thankful that God loves us enough to help us with
our limits and our obedience. God’s desire is to help us, not harm
us, but He may have to harm us in order to help us. He wants us
to spend an eternity with Him and He may take drastic measures
to ensure we will.

If we truly love Him, then we have an inner desire to obey Him,
even during the times when we are disobedient. If we feel we have
lost that desire and our disobedience is out of control, then we may
need to give serious thoughts about our relationship with Him.
Whenever we no longer feel guilt for our disobedience, or we start
justifying our actions, we should become alarmed and evaluate our
status as a child of God.

ACTION:
Are you going through a tough time right now? Have you
considered that God may be using this experience to draw
you closer to Him? Do you still have feelings of guilt whenever
you disobey God? Do you justify your actions whenever you do
things that God does not approve of, or you fail to do the things
you sense He is asking you to do?

Pray.
“Heavenly Father, thank You for loving me enough to be
involved in my life. Thank You for helping me to better
understand the benefits of obeying Your rules and staying
within Your boundaries. Whenever I stray from the limits
You have established, or I rebel at the things You want me
to do, I pray that You will give me feelings of guilt that will
guide me back to being obedient to You. Help me to focus
on the benefits of Your discipline and to be a good parent
for the children You have given to me. Help me to take my
parental responsibilities seriously and to show my children
the proper boundaries they need to establish for themselves.
I pray that they will see that I have established the right
limits for myself so that my example may lead them to You.”

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