Motivation

Re:Verse passage – Proverbs 13:24 (day four)

I am not a parent, but I am the child of parents who disciplined me. There were times (many times, actually) when I received discipline because it was needed. I hadn’t done the right thing and needed to be corrected. I wasn’t behaving in a way that honored God or respected others. Often, when I was being honest with myself, I knew I had done the wrong thing. While I would have never admitted it to them, I knew my parents were right to discipline me. In these moments, I experienced discipline out of love.

There were other, fewer, times that I experienced discipline out of a different motivation. Sometimes my parents were upset with each other, and by proxy this led them to be upset and harsh with me. Sometimes my parents had difficulty processing their own emotions and childhood traumas, which made them deal poorly with mine. A child can receive unhelpful discipline in the wake of a parent’s bad day. Children are perceptive, though. While I didn’t have words at the time to express it, I knew these moments of discipline were out of a poorer motivation.

Godly discipline requires us to examine our motivation. Are we modeling our discipline after the Lord’s so that our children may, “share in his holiness” (Hebrews 12:10)? When we engage in discipline with them, is it in an effort to make them look more like Christ? I know that when I become a parent, I will fail in this way many times. There will be moments when my flesh takes over and the discipline becomes more about me than about God. Here is a regular opportunity to say, “He must increase, I must decrease” (John 3:30).