Buck Up Buttercup!

My child, do not despise discipline from the Lord,
and do not loathe his rebuke.
For the Lord disciplines those he loves,
just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights.

~Proverbs 3:11-12

 

We see it every single day.  In fact, we may even be experiencing it first hand.  

 

• A child doesn't get what they want when they want it, so a meltdown ensues.  Parent(s) are embarrassed so much they give the child what they want.  Child learns THEY are in control of the household and the "parents" are merely there to provide every desire.

•  Child makes bad decisions throughout their years of growing.  Instead of holding the child accountable, parent(s) just make excuses and let their child "grow up" believing the world owes them and refuses to ever leave home because parent(s) still provide without any expectation and without any accountability and parent(s) continue to make excuses for their child.  Child learns if parents will buy their excuses there will be no accountability and someone else will always provide for them without the child ever having to provide for themselves. 

 Let's face facts, God can be a God of Tough Love!  And it's going to be uncomfortable when it happens, but God has a plan for each of us and will do WHATEVER it takes to accomplish that plan through you.

• God told Jonah to go preach repentance to the city of Nineveh.  Jonah decided that HIS vacation plans to Tarshish were more important and refused God's instruction.  Do you think God wrung His hands with worry and wept and made excuses and begged Jonah to "behave"?  NOPE!  God sent a storm to destroy Jonah's Cruise Boat!  Jonah guiltily admitted that he had refused God's instruction and was thrown overboard.  As if being thrown overboard into the sea was not bad enough, God sent a big fish to swallow Jonah and hold him inside for THREE days.  And if THAT weren't bad enough, after three days of smelling nothing but fish insides, the fish vomits Jonah out onto the beach.  Now, covered with fish yak and now sand, God tells Jonah to do what he was told in the first place.  God's Tough Love is tough but God's focus is NOT our comfort, but getting His message out.
• God got Pharoah to set the Israelites free from slavery, and the Israelites followed Moses through the desert.  Yet for some reason, after they had seen and experienced ALL that God had done from them (from bringing water to them in the desert, to providing food for them each day, to saving them from the bites of serpents), the Israelites decided they weren't happy with God's plans and made their own "god" to help them and guide them.  So God let the Israelites wander in the desert for 40 years (until that generation had died) before letting them into the Promised Land.

My point is this, God loves us beyond any measure we could ever conceive, yet He will use Tough Love on us.  Maybe it's time we learn from Him and love through guiding, discipline, accountability, and Tough Love, instead of listening to excuses, lies, whines, fake tears, and being fearful of our children getting upset or angry.  God is our Father and He disciplines those HE loves.  Who are we to declare God's way is "too harsh" for our children?