This is Us - Part 4: Correcting Kids

In this message, we’ll look at another challenging subject for parents and others trying to influence the next generation - Correcting Kids. Before you stop reading, especially if you believe influencing kids is outside your wheelhouse, realize that all of us, at every age and stage of life, need to first look at our own relationship with our Heavenly Father before thinking about correcting kids. As a Christ follower, it all starts there! Even if you don't consider yourself a Christ follower, there is a basic question that needs to be answered, “What do you do with correction in your own life?” We need to think about how we process that answer before we correct anyone else's life. Join us as we look at what it means to Correct Kids and what the implications are for us, no matter what our stage or age is. We will begin with a letter written to the Hebrews. The Hebrews lived in a difficult world similar to ours. This is what the writer says: …have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children? My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline, but don’t be crushed by it either. It’s the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God. Hebrews 12:5–11 MSG