"11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." Hebrews 12:11
Anyone who grew up with Asian parents can testify to this verse... not even joking. But really, all parents , if they're at all decent and care for their children, use discipline as a tool to teach. Only in a perfect world could we all frolick among fields of flower everyday with smiles on our faces and everyone would do what they were told. The reality of this world, however, was exemplified in our leadership's quiet times/devotionals. Started with integrity and good faith which we all learned in just a short few weeks that nice, fuzzy words of encouragement wasn't enough to keep us disciplined in our daily devotionals with God. So then came the punishments- writing out verses which were supposed to work our hands as well as our hearts.. But that didn't seem to work either. Finally we resorted to the ultimate physical punishment.. exercising. Interestingly enough, it seemed to work for a while but then people started to get disheartened. The point is, although we might grumble and complain in pain, hopefully we'll look back on all of this and realize that all the punishments were to train us and build up our character. God makes sure we learn one way or another.
