Read Pro. 19:18-19
I love to watch mothers with their children out shopping. I remember those days when my patience was about gone and no amount of coaxing seemed to work. I was in Target the other day when a mother spanked her daughter's bottom and she said in a very exasperated voice, "I told you that would happen if you didn't sit down." She appeared hard-hearted and mean but I knew as a mom she wasn't. She was trying to teach her daughter to obey. Today's scripture says that we are to instruct and punish our children while there is still hope and not to be manipulated by their crying. There is a better way to discipline and that is not out of anger. Easy in theory but not so easy when your child has just broken your favorite dish. We have a few years with our children and we need to make them count because the way we discipline them and love them will affect their future. I deal with people all the time that have such deep hurts from their parents that they are stunted in their maturity and can not grow past that hurt. In Jesus there is always healing and growth, it just takes digging up that bitter root and replacing it with the root of love and forgiveness. If we don't then we become the man in the next verse that says a person who is full of anger will always be punishing himself for it and even when he is helped the help is futile. Only through the Holy Spirit's healing can a person be set free of the spirit of anger.
Lord, help us to be able to receive discipline and know how to give discipline in love.
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