In this post, we will consider how parental discipline models Christ for our children.
Scripture reading: John 10:25-29
We as parents all have a duty to model the Lord to our children. Yes, we have a parental obligation to point them to Christ, but we also have a duty to teach them to respond to instruction. Instruction and discipline (chastisement in the Bible) is very much how the Lord works, and if we are not diligent in parental discipline and if we do not teach them to listen to our voices as parents, then why would they want to follow the Lord who most certainly uses discipline with us as His followers?
Deuteronomy 8:1-5 tells us, “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers. You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. Thus you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.”
Notice some key words and phrases, “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do,” “remember,” “He humbled you,” and “man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.” Discipline teaches our children the parent’s expectations and that God has expectations for how we live our lives. Discipline teaches our children to confirm their lives over time to a higher standard of expectations, and discipline teaches our children that the world does not revolve around them.
Proverbs 3:11-12 reinforces these thoughts, “My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD Or loathe His reproof, For whom the LORD loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.”
The only way my children can know the voice of the Lord is if they learn to obey and follow my voice. I am first a model of the Lord and second their protector and provider. They learn much about the Lord through me as a parent, and one day I will answer to the Lord for how I served them and Him in that role. While they are under my care, discipline helps them see how much I delight in them.
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