When I was young, I was a very active, noisy, rambunctious critter. I was what they used to call, "All boy!" Today I would have probably been labeled hyper-active and placed on medications. In my day, however, the didn't use Riddlin, they used paddlin'.
In fact, while toys and clothes and money were always in short supply, spankings were always given in abundance. I can't say I always or ever appreciated them, but I can say, looking back, that they were perhaps some of my greatest gifts. Really? Yes, really.
Listen to the Word of the Lord regarding the gift of discipline: "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" (Heb 12:11).
Discipline is the gift that keeps on giving. Long after the time out or "the board of education applied to the seat of knowledge," what is learned from discipline sticks with you, strengthening you, providing you with proper boundaries and motivation. Discipline, applied consitently and lovingly, can save a child from a lifetime of pain and perhaps a life-sentence in jail, or greater still, an eternity in hell.
I don't believe in punishing children as I don't believe God punishes his children since "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ" (Rom 8:1). But I do believe in discipline applied to turn one away from the path where punishment await. Discipline is painful motivation applied to prepare and protect. Punishment is painful repayment to bring an end to bad behavior. Punishment does not prepare or protect, it terminates.
Our Father allows discipline in our lives to shape and mold us and help us to avoid the punishment awaiting Satan and his followers, for He "is not willing that any perish but that all come to repentence (turn around back from)" (2 Pet 3:9). We should be thanking for His spankings for they help produce a better life now and prepare us for life eternal later. Jus' Sayn.
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