Tough Love
The greatest of Love of all is the one showed at the Cross of Calvary.
John 3:16 We all know and have experience God’s love in many ways but the most important was when we surrendered our hearts to Him who called us for Redemption. We say we serve a loving God, but like a good father He must show touch love. There is a good example of a good father that wants to teach his child the way to become a good, respected, loving and responsible man and that comes with the discipline the father gives his child. Sometimes knowing that it will hurt him but it will benefit in the long run. He sees what this child will become when given the correct teachings and wants to keep his child from going in the wrong direction.
Proverbs 22:6
“Train up a child in the way he should go, when he is old, he will not depart from it”
As parents we try to achieve this when raising our children and know that it will be difficult at times to show the tough love in order to get the results needed to have success in our task. Jesus relied on His Father for strength and love when He was approaching His final destination, the Cross, He also knew that obedience was essential to carry the task at hand. There was hunger, pain, agony but He understood the sacrifice needed to be made.
As our children grow, we nurture them in every way we can, show them love and provide for all their physical needs. We make sure they do not have a need for clothing, shoes, we worry when they are sick, we rejoice when they achieve success in school or any area of their lives; then comes the difficult times when we are all tested. The teen age years are upon us and that’s when we must rely on God to assure us that we have done a good job raising our children. Now they are at an age where the real testing begins, we now have to stand our ground in our faith, our principles to reflect what we have taught them from a very young age. You want to make sure they go in the direction that they should go as adults but they refuse. Here is comes, those words again TOUGH LOVE. You pray and seek guidance but you must also be vigilant and active.
The road is not an easy one or one that many desire, but one we must all take with grace, there is no way out just like it was for Jesus when He knew the way to Calvary was the only way. Stand strong in the word of God for there is where we get our strength to endure a strong-willed child, we all have them, there is a world out there that competes for their attention and we must be vigilant because there is an enemy looking for an idled mind.
1 Peter 5:8
“Be alert and sober minded, your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking who they can devour”
We’ve learned to pour out our love, the love of God into our children and for many there is no better time than now for us to understand that the battle is not with them directly but is in their minds. When they become adults, we look back on all the times we had to show tough love, we must remember that God does the same with us. He first brings conviction of our sin and we give our lives to Him and we understand the God we serve is a loving God but He also correct and rebukes.
Proverbs 10:17
“Whoever heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.”
The process is clear, in order to become what God wants us to be there must a change of mind and heart and as we apply these truths in our lives and train our children in the word of truth, we hope to achieve the goal that says in Proverbs 22:6.
Not an easy task you say? Well no but if we give up this battle imagine if God would give up on us, where would we be. If we just kept going in our sinful nature, our old way of life where there was no discipline, we wouldn’t be any different than the world where everything or anything goes. Today, you have been put to the test and no matter what you see know that God is with you and wants you to discipline, rebuke, correct and instruct your child not to harm them to better them. Will they see it at the time? No, but in the long run they will see what you were really teaching them was the Love a parent has for his/her child. We are the children of God, like our children are ours but we must take hold of the responsibility God places in us when He gives us children to care for, to love and nurture them. Don’t be afraid of the task because we do not go at it alone, God promise that He would be with us and never leave us.
Proverbs 15:31
“Whoever heeds life-giving correction will be at home among the wise.”
The reward is great and every step we take in this process we trust that God is with us. We know the God we serve is a loving God but also a God that corrects His children for their benefit and if we understand that truth, we understand that tough love is essential to the growth and development of a child. So, go ahead give tough love when needed because you are saving them from themselves.
Proverbs 22:15
“Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far away."
