Whispers of Truth

The following are my notes for today's luncheon for moms and grandmothers of preschoolers: Disciplining Our Children Is Always a Battle Worth Fighting Discipline Let me be the first to admit that I intensely dislike being on the receiving end of any discipline—it hurts something fierce and it stings my pride. As a child, I was able to avoid being disciplined very often because I understood how to avoid it—please the ones in authority over me. As an adult, I have become very adept at pleasing the people in authority over me, but I do so with a better understanding of the heart issues that I didn’t understand as a child. I am a sinner saved by grace, and as such, I need grace extended to me because I am trapped in this body of flesh, and I sin often. As an adult, the difference is knowledge of the One who disciplines me and His motive. Hebrews 12 speaks of the issue of discipline from both the standpoint of the parent who disciplines a child and the One who discip

Following a warning to take care not to have evil, unbelieving hearts that reject the living God, the writer of Hebrews offers us this exhortation: But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 12:13, NASB). This verse seems to have become a recurring theme for me this year as I’ve seen how important it is for believers to stand in the gap for fellow believers who are struggling. More than ever before, I see my own struggles, and without this kind of encouragement, I am afraid that I would have a heart “hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Today, I thought about this verse as I read Paul’s words of encouragement to a young pastor (I Timothy 4). He told Timothy to persevere in not only disciplining himself for the purpose of being godly, but also for teaching God’s word to the people who so desperately needed it. The connection is this: as we discipline ourselves in studying