Whoever Hates Correction…

My middle son has adopted a verse in Proverbs as his favorite. He found it on his own and when he read it, he made up his mind to memorize it. If I need it quoted I can point to him and say, “Ivan, tell us your favorite verse.” and he will recite it proudly. He learned it in the New International Version and I am pretty sure that the wording is what made him love it so much, specifically one word that in most instances we aren’t allowed to say to others. He knew when he read it that I wouldn’t stop him from saying it if it’s in the Bible…

“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid.” Proverbs 12:1

Yep. Stupid. Stupid is a bad word when it’s used to belittle our brothers or crush our friends, but as promised in sermon after sermon, the Word of God offers us freedom. Ivan is taking his.

Now let me make a confession. I don’t like correction.

You wanna know why that’s stupid?

That’s stupid, because on my best day, I’m imperfect. On the days my schedule fits and my husband thinks I hung the moon and my kids lunches all ended up in the right lunch boxes…I’m still a dolt.

A dolt who has been redeemed.

A dolt with a new identity.

Discipline is hard to love some days. It’s hard to swallow. It’s hard to accept it as the catalyst to knowledge because I can be very undisciplined in sitting down to read a book, or the news or blogs or whatever is interesting at the moment and feel like I’m gaining knowledge. I’m only perusing it though. To gain knowledge, real Godly knowledge, I need to experience “instruction and correction” (Amplified) so that the things of God are settled into the deep places of my heart.

Recently I had a sour faced 10 year old boy leaning into me for pity. He wanted the chore of discipline (in this case it had something to do with homework) to go away, and have the honor of living out his existence with a confidence made only of high praise. I heard myself say to him, “are you a crybaby who can’t function on your own, or are you a child of God who has been given the mind of Christ, and the confidence of a new identity? Make that choice, and your decision will determine how you handle this challenge.”

Those words echoed pretty loudly in my own soul.

How often do I choose my direction for myself based on my awareness of my weakness and consequently my disdain for correction?

How often do I step out into a day with a crybaby mentality? Being only willing to do what is comfortable and easy for me, will never stretch me into a greater knowledge of God. It will condemn me eventually.

Everyday I need to see myself as a child of God who has been given the mind of Christ and a new identity. From there my challenges aren’t just another opportunity to fail and be corrected, they are opportunities to grow and stretch and find a greater warmth from my relationship with God and stronger confidence from being more deeply rooted in His ways.

This is a constant battle for me, but one I am more and more determined I need to fight. I have to ask myself:
– “Did God ask me to do this?”

– “Am I saying ‘no’ because I can’t do it, or because I don’t know how to do it?”

– “Where else can God take me if I meet this challenge and through success or failure get to the other side of it with greater knowledge?”

Taking on the difficult tasks in front of me with a good attitude won’t guarantee my success, and that could be discouraging. However, it isn’t failure that the Bible calls stupid, it’s hating correction so much that I fear failure. That’s stupid.