Discipline and Training bring Transformation

Our heavenly Father disciplines us for our own good, just as we as children were disciplined by our parents or we as parents discipline our children. Our parents did it and we do it as parents in order to teach our children. Every loving parent disciplines and corrects their children. God loves us more than we can ever imagine, it surpasses our understanding, our mere earthly human minds cannot understand the magnitude of God's complete and unconditional love for each and every one of us.

Before I go any further, I just need to clarify something. Unfortunately, some parents have taken discipline to a whole new level that is totally inappropriate called "child abuse." Whether it be verbal abuse, mental abuse or physical abuse, that type of punishment is not appropriate and not at all what God had in mind when He speaks of a father disciplining his child. This type of discipline is coming out of a heart full of anger, rage and frustration and the parent is taking it out on the child. Discipline involves training, teaching and correcting.

The definition of discipline is to bring to a state of order and obedience by training and control. When I was in competitive figure skating, I had to go through a lot of training and discipline in order to be ready for a competition. It wasn't always fun to train. Getting up at 5AM on a cold winter morning while it is still dark outside and skating at a cold rink for hours in the morning was not fun. That took discipline and training by my coach. If I hadn't gone through the training, I would not have been ready or prepared when it was time to compete. Just as we put our bodies through training for a sport, God puts our hearts through training and discipline in order to prepare us for the good plans that He has for us.

Jeremiah 29:11 (Amplified)

For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.

Hebrews 12:6-11 (Amplified)

For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes. You must submit to and endure correction for discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not thus train and correct and discipline? Now if you are exempt from correction and left without discipline in which all of God's children share, then you are illegitimate offspring and not true sons at all. Moreover, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we yielded to them and respected them for training us. Shall we not much more cheerfully submit to the Father of spirits and so truly live? For our earthly fathers disciplined us for only a short period of time and chastised us as seemed proper and good to them; but He disciplines us for our certain good, that we may become sharers in His own holiness. For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it [a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness -- conformity to God's will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God].

We are not automatically God's children. In order to become His child, we must choose Him.

Deuteronomy 30:19 (Amplified)

I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you that I have set before you life and death, the blessings and the curses; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live.

I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, "Why should I choose Him if He is just going to beat the tar out of me?" That is not the kind of discipline He is talking about. He works on our hearts. We start out with hearts full of sin and selfishness. If we choose life, He begins to work the selfishness and sin out of our hearts and little by little our life is forever changed for the better. He begins transforming us into His image. The way to choose life is simple. We simply need to accept and believe that God sent His son Jesus to this earth to pay for our sins once and for all by sending His son to die on the cross and raising Him back to life on the third day and is now seated at God's right-hand side. We then receive Jesus who then dwells in our hearts.

God has given us all free will, He did not create nor want robots. When the bible says, "I set before you life . . ." it means when we choose to believe in and accept Jesus we receive the free gift of eternal life in heaven with Him. When the bible says, ". . . or death," it means, when we live to please our sinful selves and seek to satisfy our own selfish desires we are rejecting Him and we are not His children and we will not have a place in heaven. Hebrews 12:8 said, ". . . you are illegitimate offspring and not true sons at all." I like the way I have heard Joyce Meyer say it once, I am not sure if I am quoting this correctly but it went something like this: "I would rather live my life as if there is a God and find out I am right, than live my life as if there is no God and find out I am wrong." Basically what she is saying is that you have nothing to lose if you choose Him and everything to gain.

Some of the pain or trails we go through are brought on by ourselves; by our own foolish choices. Some people think that when something bad happens to them God is punishing them. That is not true. God does not punish like that. Remember, God only disciplines His children and you only become His child when you choose to believe in His son Jesus. Then the discipline begins, but it is a discipline of the heart as He works to remove the sin and selfishness out of us. We become a work in progress.

Let me give you a real-life example of how God works sin and selfishness out of our hearts. Before I accepted Jesus and He came to live in my heart, I used to spit or throw my gum out the car window as I was driving. I never thought twice about it. One day, after I had received Jesus, I was driving down the road and I had spit my gum into my hand and was about to throw it out the window. I heard a voice in my mind say, "No, that is littering." I proceeded to roll the gum around in my fingers while I drove as I was figured out what to do with it. I ended up rolling it into my grocery receipt and sticking it back in with my groceries. It is the little things like that, that He begins to work on and bring change in your heart and in your life.

I will give you another real-life example. Before I received Jesus, I used to walk my dogs in the park and not bother to clean up after them. I knew it was against the law to leave it there but I didn't care. One afternoon as I was walking the dogs, one of my dogs was going to the bathroom. I let her do her thing and began to walk away when I suddenly heard a voice in my head say, "Pick that up!" I was not prepared. I never carried those "pooper" bags for scooping up the poop. I suddenly felt a strong urge to do the right thing. I ended up using an empty cup that someone had littered and a stick to flick the doggy doo doo into the cup. I then proceeded to walk, rather quickly I might add, to the nearest garbage can.

Those, my friends, are some real-life examples of how God disciplines. If you want to read another example of how God deals with more serious issues, read my post titled, "Heart Issues." Hebrews 12:11 says, "For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit. . ." If you have read my post titled, "Heart Issues" you will know that discipline was painful and grievous for me to go through but it was something that had to be done and now that I have I am so much better off and I have so much peace.

God is not sitting in heaven thinking up ways to torture us as some people would believe. He loves all of us. He wants all of us to be His children, but it is our choice.

Flower’s For Valentine’s Day

A heartwarming true story of God's love!

It was a cold winter day on January 23^rd, 2004, and my non-believing husband had just moved out and left me. He broke the news to me the night before. I was not heartbroken because the years leading up to his moving out had been full of strife. He had emotionally checked out of our marriage long before he decided to physically move out. Before my husband moved out, I used to lie awake in bed and think to myself, "It is lonelier being married and being ignored day after day than it would be to actually live alone." It turns out I was right. After he had moved out and I had settled into my new life as a single mom, my life became more peaceful.

The days following my husband leaving left me feeling completely devastated. I wondered how I was going to support myself and my seven-year-old son. How was I going to earn an income and pay my bills? Being a full-time mom, out of the work force for seven years and having Agoraphobia (a severe panic disorder that has left me housebound except for the small comfort zone of about a 10 block radius around my home that I can drive) had put me at a huge disadvantage. I focused on getting the basement suite fixed up and ready to rent out as soon as possible, which would help pay my bills. My parents came into town one weekend to help. They spent over a lot of money out of their own pocket, helping me renovate the basement suite. I am truly thankful and blessed to have their help and support.

Now Valentine's Day would soon be here and I was thinking about this being my first Valentine's Day as a single mom. Even though for the past few years my husband had stopped celebrating Valentine's Day with me, just the thought of not having a valentine seemed very sad. One day I found myself standing in the Safeway grocery store, staring at the beautiful variety of fragrant, bright, colorful flowers. There was a tiny yellow rose bush that caught my eye. How cheerful and bright it looked. I wanted to buy it but I knew that I had to keep myself on a tight budget.

I had been praying and leaning on God throughout this whole process and I knew He was listening and caring for me. I have an Easter Lily plant that has been hanging in the same spot and in the same pot for the past 10 years and it has never bloomed, not at Easter or any other time. On the morning of Valentine's Day, I woke up and I noticed my Easter Lily was in full bloom, with not only one beautiful Easter Lily, but two on the end of a very long stalk. I was in awe, I didn't even see the stalk growing leading up to that; it was like it grew overnight. It wasn't until later that week that I realized how significant that moment was. I realized that God had sent me those two lilies for Valentine's Day to show me how much He loved me and that he was caring for me and hearing my every prayer. Not only that, but I believe He sent me two lilies on the end of one stalk to tell me that He will take care of my son and myself and that I should not worry because He loves me and He will meet our needs. I was filled with so much peace; it was like I could feel His loving presence all around me.

That wasn't the only message I received from God that weekend. During my morning devotional reading from "Our Daily Bread," I could not help but feel like the message that day was meant for me. It was titled, "Starting Over," and it was about a mother and her son named Justin, who was in the first grade. My son's name is Justin, he is in grade two and we are starting over. Those feelings I had before of God's loving presence, they were back now in full force as I read the devotional reading that morning.

Once I put all of the pieces together, I stared at those lilies for a very long time. I took many pictures, one is attached below. I wanted to seize that moment and keep it close to my heart forever. I felt so special and so loved. The feelings I had that day were overwhelming and still surge through me as I write this message. In the midst of my personal chaos, I am at peace. For my God is the God of comfort and peace. I know God is at work in my life. Everything that is happening in my life, God can and will use for His greater purpose. I just have to be patient and wait for the calm after the storm. Our God is an awesome God!!

Over the years I have found that God often confirms things for me by either using "The Daily Bread" devotionals or His Living Word. There have been many times now that I have been wondering or struggling with something and the very next day, there it is in black and white, my answer.