My brother and I were in the same Spanish class in high school. 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.
It seems that I much preferred showing off for my classmates than impressing my teacher. One day my brother was standing before the class in the front of the room giving a speech in Spanish. The classroom was setup with booths and headsets which allowed us to listen to Spanish and then practice repeating what we heard.
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 by 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. He tried to ignore me, but was mightily distracted. 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 had a custom made paddle for disciplining unruly students. He smiled and asked if I preferred to receive my paddling with his left or right hand. I assumed he was right handed and chose left; he was left handed.
Ugh! Another bad decision.
I still remember that smirk on my Spanish teacher’s face as she gleefully watched.
Pow! Pow! Pow! – Yeow!
After the paddling, the principal looked at me sternly and mentioned that he did not want to see me back in his office anytime soon. Wow! How insightful of him. The way my butt felt he could have saved his breath, I wasn’t planning on coming back to his office anytime soon I tell you. I learned the hard way that rebellion has its price and I wasn’t any too keen on paying it again anytime soon.
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 He has ordained for earthly fathers, God administers discipline in order to achieve a certain positive result and it is always in our best interest.
If you are currently being chastened by the Lord, read the verse below and meditate on it for a few moments. Hopefully the Lord’s peace will descend upon you as the sting of the chastening lifts.
Hebrews 12:9
. . . we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live? Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a peaceful harvest of righteousness to those who have been trained by it . . .
September 14 2016 – Click here to listen