No need of another visit

When in high school my brother and I were in the same Spanish class. He was the teacher’s pet; I was the teacher’s nemesis. He sat on the front row; I sat on the back row. The teacher loved him because he faithfully did everything she asked; she hated me because I tried my rebellious utmost to do the opposite of what she asked, much preferring to show off for my friends.

One day my brother was standing before the class giving a speech in Spanish. The classroom was setup with booths with headsets where we could listen to Spanish and practice repeating what we heard in Spanish. For some strange reason I decided to crawl underneath the booths from my position in the very last row of the class to the front of the class. From her position the teacher could not see me, but my classmates found it very amusing to watch me crawling under the booths and their legs to get to the front of the classroom. When I arrived, I started tormenting my brother who was midway through his speech. I tugged on his pants leg and when he looked down I made faces at him and made an obscene gesture at him with my finger.

By now everyone in the classroom was snickering or outright laughing aloud. Our Spanish teacher knew something was up, but was about four feet nothing and could not see over the booths. That is until she stood up and came around to the front of the class. Uh oh! She summoned me out from under the booths and escorted me to the principal’s office. Not good! The principal asked if I preferred to receive my paddling with his left hand or right. I chose left; he was left handed; another bad decision. Pow! Pow! Pow! Yeow! That hurt. I still remember that smirk on my Spanish teacher’s face as she gleefully watched.


The principal looked at me sternly and mentioned that he did not want to see me back in his office anytime soon. “Oh really”, I thought, “That was poignant!” The way my butt felt, I wasn’t planning on coming back to his office anytime soon, and I did not need for him to make that point again, I tell you!


The Bible has much to say about chastening from the Lord. (Yes the Lord still chastens us even though the ACLU long ago did away with corporal punishment in the classroom and is moving towards the same thing in the home.) As with our earthly fathers, God does it to achieve a certain positive result and it is in our interest. If you are currently being chastened by the Lord, read the verse below and meditate on it for a few moments. Hopefully the peace of the Lord will descend upon you as the sting of the punishment lifts

Hebrews 12:9
We have had human
fathers who corrected us, and
we paid them respect. Shall we no
much more readily be in subjection
to the Father of spirits and live?
For they indeed for a few days
chastened us as seemed best to
them, but He for our profit, that we
may be partakers of His holiness.
Now no chastening seems to be
joyful for the present, but painful;
nevertheless, afterward it yields the
peaceable fruit of righteousness to
those who have been trained by it.