I always thought that the old adage from Hebrews, 'Spare the rod and spoil the child,' was a real bummer.

From the day I got my first spanking until the last, I never really got the message. I did not get the rod. I got the old razor strap and the rod would have been a blessing. My dad used to get it from his father and so he passed it along to me.

Sometimes I thought I knew why, but most of the times I didn't have a clue. I also got thrown down the hallway, the whole length.

Luckily, it had a good polish and no splinters.

I never whipped my kids. I'd sit them down and let them have it with — what I thought was — a blistering dialogue of very harsh words mixed with future wisdom. I usually ended with, 'I hope you've learned your lesson.'

I guess we all go through the growing up stages needing a certain amount of punishment — discipline sounds better — but it still hurts. For some reason, we all have the need to try our wings, see how far we can go

and without thinking about breaking the rules. In my case, I really never thought ahead.

'Everybody else does it, and I don't want to look like a sissy-boy.'

Time is on our side.

Whether we get tired of getting clobbered or just wise up, we begin to discriminate. We know and can choose before we act.

We really try to count to 10 before we decide. Some folks haven't figured that out.

Let's move ahead a tad and talk about those times when people ask, 'Why?

Why has God done this to me? Why did my loved one have to die? Why have I got cancer? Why is God letting me suffer like this?' I remember a friend who told me one day, 'If this is the best I can hope for in life, who needs it and why bother to go on?'

I sat through a sermon and was told that God

loves us and needs for us to experience pain so we will lead better lives or worse, that God wants to test us.

Surely, God knows what I'm going to do, so why a test? Now Hebrews writes, 'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished by him.'

Remember, this was written at a time when the church was being persecuted and being a Christian could result in death by torture. Even so, this was God's way of strengthening those early believers' faith and a toughening up process so that they could endure just about anything without giving up. So, they reasoned.

If we carry the punishment idea too far, we may get the idea that the life and death of Jesus Christ was a punishment, a vicarious way of punishing the world. In other words, Jesus was punished for us so that He could — in some way — satisfy God's need for a sacrifice. Would a loving God humiliate His son, desert His son, have Him beaten unmercifully and have Him killed in the most cruel manner imaginable — especially since His Son was absolutely innocent — just so His honor would remain intact? I don't think so.

There is a fact to the life of Christ which should be overlooked if we believed in punishment. God gave His Son complete freedom of choice. His Son had the choice in the wilderness when He was tempted. He

had the choice of not going to Jerusalem. He could have changed His mind at the Garden of Gethsemane. But our Lord made the right choice out of complete and perfect freedom, knowing what the choice would bring.

Okay, I am out on a limb and perhaps confused and misdirected. Don't we have to have punishment when people get out of control and they must be disciplined? Of course, but in what way? The death penalty has not stopped murder. Incarceration takes perpetrators off the street for a while. The news is all about arrests, violent actions between protestors of both sides and the absolute overload of warnings by judges to control the undisciplined.

Try this. Education! We must be taught that we are capable of doing anything and that we might do it if the circumstances are right, and we don't seem to recognize the results of unthinking human beings. The second thing we must be taught is to understand that we cannot control our actions alone. We just are not strong enough. We need God. The third thing is to accept the help that God gives us and is available through

His Son Jesus Christ.

The discipline comes in trying — as best we can — to live a life that is conducive to health, happiness and reward. The lack of that discipline leads to a life of misery and punishment.

There is a goal that belongs to every Christian, 'Keep the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ that are wrapped up into two words, 'Follow Me.'' 'For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. Later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.'

Thanks, God!