Correction

My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor detest His correction; For whom the LORD loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights.  – Proverbs 3v11-12

None of us like correction. I didn’t like it when I was a kid. My children didn’t like it. My grandkids don’t like it. I don’t like it when I get a traffic ticket. I don’t even like it when the stupid phone company sends me a letter telling me my phone bill is late, even when I have already paid it. A couple of years ago I received a ticket for fair jumping on the Luas. I had made an honest mistake, and they let me off, but I felt like a child when the letter said something like, ‘Now, make sure you log on properly next time you ride our tram!’

Correction always stinks, but it does so especially when we don’t deserve it. About the same time as the Luas ticket Louth County Council sent me a ticket for littering. As it turns out, we had taken a box of groceries to a family there and they had thrown the box on the street. It still had my name and address on it, so the litter warden blamed me! Eventually I worked through that as well, but I really hated being corrected for something I had not done.

Just correction is good. If I am speeding and get ticketed I deserve it. I need to slow down and maybe that ticket will make me a better driver. If we correct our children properly it moulds and shapes their character and makes them better people.

Unjust correction is bad. Too many times I have corrected my children and grandchildren unjustly. I don’t know the whole story; I don’t know why they did what they did. All I know at those times it that I am upset and want my upset fixed.

Proverbs 3v11-12 addresses correction. It reminds me of Hebrews 12. We can be assured that as God’s children we have the perfect Corrector. He is never going to correct me wrongly. His correction is always right and the result of properly applied and properly accepted correction is the ‘peaceable fruits of righteousness.’

Praise God for the perfect Corrector. May I learn to let His correction work in my life.