DISCIPLINE

I don't know if your child - the one you bore - has ever done or said something so embarrassingly out-of-line in public that you wanted to crawl under the carpet.  Wait - if you have children - even one - of course he/she has.

Sometimes it's a cute thing but still embarrassing:

(At the grocery store):  'Daddy - I gotta go pee-pee!!'

(In line at Menards):  'SAVE BIG MONEY AT MENARDS!' at the top of her lungs.  Or worse, at a Menard's competitor.

At a wedding reception where everybody is in their finest and Junior takes his fork and loads it up with peas and flings them across the room like a slingshot and hits the bride right in the veil.

(At McDonalds, referring to the person right in front of you): 'Mommy, is that a dwarf?'  Ugh.  (under your breath): 'Shh!  No, honey - she's just very short.'

We could go on and on with comments from children about someone's pregnancy, ethnicity, speech ...

And then there is that time - and of course, this is always someone else's child, not yours - who literally lays down in the aisle of the store and throws a complete tantrum - screaming and kicking and wailing at something they want that they can't have - and you watch the parent stand there with a variety of responses from compromising to coaxing to pleading to bribing to apologizing to threatening to playing child psychologist to bait-and-switch tactics to retreating to going around the aisle like the child doesn't belong to them to all out violence in return.

At those times you feel your face redden.  If it's happening to you, you want to hide your head - try to momentarily disown your family.  Sometimes you care more what people are thinking than responding to the heart of your child.

"We have to figure out how to be on their side against the sin."

The Bible says our Heavenly Father disciplines those He loves.  In our life with Christ it has become clear to us that God has sided with us against sin.  That is a big thing to say.  He has stood on the side of the sinner in order to redeem him/her.  If we let the life of Christ seep down into our every day lives, choices and decisions - as it should - that fact should impact our parenting.

When our children are so willfully disobedient, disrespectful, dishonest - we have to figure out how to be on their side against the sin - not against them.

Because whether it's your child banging his hands and feet on the glossy floor of the retail store or it's the adult you rebelling against God, discipline is really about restoring broken relationships.  That's what God did for you when He sent Jesus.  No doubt about it.

And be blessed.