Being Taken to the Woodshed

“Discipline without relationship leads to anger.” – Os Hillman

My dad was mad… and my younger sister and I were both in trouble. I don’t remember the reason why, but I assume we were fighting. And so, up the steps we marched into my parents’ bedroom, where my dad opened his closet door.

Gulp!

I knew what was coming next. “Pick out a belt,” he instructed us. From past experience, I knew that the thin belts stung more, so I selected a thick one. My punishment was swift – just a swipe or two – and no marks were left behind… but a lesson was learned that carries over to this day. However, my sister tried a different approach by crawling under the bed to hide.

My dad stood 5’10” and weighed about 180 pounds, so he wasn’t able to fit under the bed himself. But my sister’s antics only made him angrier… and as a result, her punishment was a little more severe than mine.

Just for the record, we were never beaten as children and those spankings were few and far between. A more common form of discipline was being made to sit quietly on a chair – these days, parents call that a “time out” – or the loss of a privilege. However, I do believe in the limited use of corporal punishment.

I don’t have the time or space to recite all of Hebrews 12:5-11, but I encourage you to read it for yourselves. Basically, that passage says that the very fact that God disciplines us from time to time proves that we are His children. After all, we don’t go around spanking other people’s kids, do we? Instead, we discipline our own… as needed.

That passage also affirms that God disciplines us as a form of correction. He also does so out of love, not anger, because we have a Father-Son or Father-Daughter relationship with Him. Amen and amen!

“He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.” Proverbs 13:24 (BSB)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President