I think my skin is thin. For sure as I get older I find I can bleed with just a nick or little bruise. I hope my emotional skin is thickening up. By nature, (perhaps pride and insecurity) I don’t like to be corrected, disciplined, rebuked, or be wrong. I would rather my shortcomings be hidden and unknown. That’s me. I laugh when my wife and I are in a Bible study group and she corrects me either on my selective remembrance of our history or worse yet, some Biblical truth I have misstated. Its good to be able to laugh at myself. My first reaction however is in my head “please don’t correct me in public!” The problem with not receiving correction is that we suffer for it. Solomon repeated the mantra often. Look at what he says just in this short collection of proverbs in chapter 15. Let’s start today ready to receive much needed reflection, coaching, consultation, correction and yes, even discipline. Our lives depend on it.
A fool rejects his father’s discipline,
But he who complies with rebuke is sensible. Proverbs 15:5ff
There is severe punishment for one who abandons the way;
One who hates a rebuke will die. verse 10
A scoffer does not love one who rebukes him;
He will not go to the wise. verse 12
Without consultation, plans are frustrated,
But with many counselors they succeed. verse 22
One whose ear listens to a life-giving rebuke will stay among the wise. One who neglects discipline rejects himself,
But one who listens to a rebuke acquires understanding. verses 31-32
How easily do I receive correction? What is my emotional response to those who bring it? Who have I invited into my life for just such a purpose?
God, as this day begins- I know I am fixed and perhaps a bit rigid in some areas. Would You ‘create in me a clean heart’, ‘see if there be any wicked way in me’, ‘and lead me in the way everlasting’. Thank you for the teachers and coaches in my life who offer correction and reflection born out of love. Help me receive what they have to say.
