“I feel like you don’t like me dad,” the little boy said to his father after being scolded for talking in class instead of paying attention to his teacher. I’m pretty sure he was sincere in his feeling, but he was naïve to the fact that his father more than likes him, he loves him. So many times I can look at the correlation between children and me as God’s kid. So much applies. The positive stuff applies, like the blind faith kids have in their parents and the world during their wonderful early years. The other stuff applies as well, you know, the life lesson stuff.
Sometimes when God corrects us and sends correction our way, we think He doesn’t like us anymore. Maybe you don’t, but I’ve had that pop into my head. Maybe not necessarily that He doesn’t like me, but more than that I see Sally over there acting a fool and she gets a pass. She gets to run her life amuck and yet she still has and gets to do and be all that she wants, or so it seems.
When I was a child, I didn’t know what my parents knew. I didn’t see all that they were seeing. I saw what I saw and came to conclusions every now and again that life is unfair. Now I’m all grown up and I’m a parent. I’m responsible for a little man and a little woman. I am responsible to see that they are cared for in every way. I am responsible to bring correction into their lives so that they grow up to be like straight oak trees, not crooked broken shrubs. My husband and I make the easy and hard decisions for their lives now. It’s not based on liking them, or if they are likeable, but because we love them. We are their parents and we are looking out for them whether they understand that or not. For you, God is doing the same (only perfectly). He’s closed some doors you didn’t think He would. He’s opened others that have totally surprised you. He’s not answered your prayers as quickly as you’ve prayed them. He’s had you wait and wait and wait. He’s brought you correction, even when it hurt. He did it and does it because He loves you. He is your father and you belong to Him.
Hebrews 12:6-11 (NIV)
6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”[a] 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 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.
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