I was sitting here thinking about my daughter. She is almost 20 years
old yet I can still remember, as if it were yesterday, the first time I had to discipline her. She was a little over
a year old and quite the busy bee. We were visiting my sister and all the knick knacks in her house fascinated my active toddler.
She couldn’t keep her hands off a certain ‘pretty’, as we called them. At first I said, “No,
no, don’t touch.” She smiled and touched anyway. I said more firmly, “I said no!”
She stopped and looked at me but decided to touch anyway. I took her hand and gently tapped it and repeated, “No,
no!” At this, she giggled and touched that silly little figurine again while looking me right in the eye!
I wanted to laugh at her obstinacy – that little girl was so stinking cute and oh how I loved her! But I also
wanted to teach my child obedience. I wanted her to learn that when I said “no” it was for her good and/or
for the good of someone else. I wanted to get to the point where all I had to do was say “no” and she would
trust that, as her mother, I knew best. The battle continued until the ‘tap’ on her hand stung enough to
outweigh her desire to touch. Surrendering, she sat down on the floor, and teary eyed she pointed toward the object
and said, “No, no”. I kissed her on top of the head and gently said, “That’s right, honey, no,
no.” I laugh now at how I had to go into the other room and cry, at once realizing what my dad meant when he had
said to me so many years before, “This is going to hurt me more than you”. When I returned to my child,
she was happily playing with her toys – the toys I had handpicked and purchased for her.
Thinking back to this progression of “training
up my child”, I recognize that this is the same process God has used (and continues to use) on me, His child, over and
over again until the lesson is finally learned. God is always right here with me telling me “no” when I
attempt to ‘touch’ those things that will harm me and to warn me about my actions that may harm someone else.
At times I choose not to listen to that still small voice so the voice gets a bit louder and more firm. When I remain
obstinate, He begins to show me through circumstances and other people how my behavior is harming me or others.
To my shame, there are times I continue in my rebellion until I can no longer bear the pain of His hand of correction upon
me and I fall to my knees in surrender. In humility, I sit before my Father and admit my wrong doing. He kisses
the top of my head and gently reminds me that He knows what is best for me. Comforted by His forgiveness and assured
of His unfailing love for me, I stand; ready to do His will once again.
