Re:Verse passage – Proverbs 13:24 (day five)
To me, one of the hardest parts about parental discipline is that it is hard and slow work. After discipline is needed and given, I cannot expect my kids to be changed overnight or immediately after a time of discipline and correction. Chances are, there will be more conversations and times of discipline that follow up on the initial moments that follow wrongdoing because our kids (all of us) are prone to sin and selfish behavior. It takes constant vigilance, work, correcting, disciplining, etc. to lovingly and purposefully guide our kids to be who God calls them to be and act how God has called them to act.
But it is necessary. Often, it is tempting to take the easy way out and let things go. Essentially, we are saying that is easier for me to let things go because I don’t want to do it (because we are prone to sin and selfish behavior!). But it is in this grind-it-out, long-term-goal-in-mind where we need to keep steady.
In our personal walk with the Lord, we require daily reminders to follow Him and to do what is righteous in the sight of the Lord. We typically do not change overnight and then consistently follow Him in all we do. The Lord lovingly and purposefully guides us. This is not a “check that box of discipline” off time, but a process of being molded and shaped into who God calls us to be.
It is the same for our kids. Through proper discipline, we are helping our kids know what God has called them to do and who He has called them to be. Parents, do you love your kids? Then keep after it. There is a battle much deeper going on.
Traditionally I have always read this as the rod being used as a form of physical “punishment” or discipline for a child, but today I was researching the use of the rod by a shepherd. It was at minimum also used as protection from enemies and a way to guard the flock from the wolves, snakes, and outside forces that mean the sheep harm. I don’t think I have ever heard the discussion of this verse from that point of view. There are dangers headed for our children and it is just as important to guard them from these dangers as to us the rod to emphasis a point of discipline.