Wisdom Needed

When God speaks to me, He likes to make sure I am listening. He will tell me something over and over until I get it. He is so gracious like that.


Lately, Adam and I have had several discussions on discipline for our children. We talked about how we would discipline our kids before Jackson was born, but after a child actually entered our life, the conversation became that much more important. So I started praying that God would reveal to me some wisdom on how to best discipline Jackson. What I was wrestling with the most was the why behind our discipline. I know that as parents we are responsible for disciplining our children, and I know that Adam and I are fully capable of doing it, but I needed to know exactly why it is so important, and exactly how God intends us to do it. (Call me crazy. I'm an over-analyzer to say the least.)


So I started praying for wisdom.


And let me just say, when you pray for wisdom and insight, God is delighted to impart it! :)


1)  I first picked up a book that I had started months and months ago, and decided I would finish it. It's called Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp. This book is fantastic, and if you are a parent, I highly suggest you read it. I had several take aways from the book, but here are a few of my favorites:


- Disciplining is not the same thing as punishing. 


-Disciplining your child now is rescuing your child from future more extreme consequences later.


-We must discipline and seek to train our child's heart, not just the behavior, or else we will, in essence, be raising well-behaved hypocrites. 


And I'll just quote my favorite part of the book:


"You want to see your child live a life that is embedded in the rich soil of Christ's gracious work. The focal point of your discipline and correction must be your children seeing their utter inability to do the things God requires unless they know the help and strength of God."


2) After reading the book, and loving it, and talking with several of my friends (who have read it), God then led me to this blog post: Biblical Discipline or Behavior Modification? written by a friend I went to college with. Her information was parallel to what God was teaching Adam and I. 


3) And finally, the sermon series we are doing at church, that technically has nothing to do with disciplining your children, has been shedding more light on how God disciplines us, and why He does so.  Here are some of my notes: (The sermon was on the story of Jonah)


-God is generous with His grace and thorough with His discipline.


-God is not disciplining you to pay you back, he is doing so to win you back and bring you back to a place of surrender.


Those are only three of the ways God has been pouring out His wisdom (thank you Jesus).  Mine and Adam's prayer is that we will be parents who discipline towards the heart, not just the behavior, who seek to point our children to their need of a Savior, and who are generous with our grace, yet thorough in our discipline. 


~Monica