I found this devotion shared by Proverbs 31 Ministries at, www.proverbs31.org., and these are my answers to the questions asked:
God’s word in Job 5:17 says, “Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so, do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.” (NIV)
It takes a caring friend to whisper, “You have something stuck in your teeth.” That tooth tip is meant to be helpful, not harmful. We are wise to recognize correction — either big or small — as a chance to improve, instead of a challenge to be rejected.
What I’m hearing when I read this verse is that instead of tuning into our negative emotions, all we need to say is, “Thank you”, because when we are being corrected, it is out of love..
When you’re corrected, what is your immediate response?
· Most of the time I am grateful, but sometimes,
· It hurts my feelings,
· It angers me, or
· Embarrasses me, and it
· Triggers my ego and makes me want to prove them wrong even if they are right.
When the Lord nudges us and says, “Child, you need to go apologize to your friend …” or “You spoke very rudely just then …” we can learn to respond with the words “Thank you.” Thank You, Lord, for correcting me because You love me. Thank You for helping me become more like You.
This was VERY difficult for me at first. Apologizing is not easy, especially when you feel that you are right, and they are wrong.
For example, my daughter and I used to butt heads often. She is just like me, so when we would have a conversation that got heated, neither one of us wanted to stop talking until we were able to prove our point, and if we felt like it was not being received well, then we would get angry!
Well, after doing a devotion similar to this one, I made a conscious effort to try not to argue with her anymore. (I chose to pick my battles because sometimes the things that we argued about didn’t even matter that much. They were not harmful or life changing, so I decided that it was better to salvage our relationship than to be “right”.)
I also made a conscious effort when I was wrong, to go back and apologize to her instead of just leaving it alone and acting like it never happened, and just by doing these 2 things, my relationship with my daughter changed drastically.
· She calls me now or sends messages just to say, “I love you mom.”
· She is more willing to talk to me now ,and shares more personal information with me.
· and she even asks for my advice!
· And the best part is that she recognizes and talks about God which is something that she didn’t really do before! She even calls and asks me for prayer sometimes and that is exciting for me because my greatest hope is that my children will know and love Jesus Christ!
Being a child of God means that God loves us too much to allow us to continue uncorrected in sin. Therefore, when He nudges us and convicts us of our actions, and we feel it in our hearts to apologize, then we need to just say,”Thank You”, and then do exactly that!
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we struggle with sin and need Your loving correction. Thank You for intervening in our lives over and over again. Thank You for working on our character and behavior so that we can look more like You. Please help us to welcome Your discipline and to submit to Your will, giving us a gracious attitude toward others.
In Jesus Name, Amen.