My son, observe the commandments of your father, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother; bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck. When you walk about, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk to you. For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching is light; and reproofs of discipline are the way of life. (Proverbs 6:20 -23)
One of the struggles of being a mother is knowing how and when to discipline. For home schooling mothers, the issue of discipline is a constant one, a wearying task that can be very confusing and heartbreaking, too. One reason that leads many of us into home schooling is the priority we have to train our children to love the Lord their God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. To do that, we discipline them – training them to be excellent stewards of their faculties, their minds, training them to be responsible and exhibit kindness and love to others starting in the home, and training them to respect and obey God-given authority. That discipline comes with rewards and praise, and natural and imposed consequences. As a mother of six with not so perfect health, weakness and fatigue have often hindered my ability to see things as God sees them, and I have often fallen prey to rash tones of voice, anger that rose from my flesh, and a fear that I was failing God and my family. Too often, we moms carry a heavy sack of guilt in knowing that we have made mistakes. Yet, God’s grace has mercifully wrought many wonderful lessons as I have always gone in humbleness to seek forgiveness from my children when I have been wrong in my reactions.
As I have also grown in the Lord, He has frequently reminded me of Moses in the wilderness before the second Rock when the people of Israel complained yet again and cried out for water. Moses was told to speak to the Rock and out of the Rock would flow life-giving water. But Moses was overwrought with frustration and anger, rightfully so. Yet, he reacted with words of spite and anger that focused on the people and then focused on himself as the one to bring forth water out of the rock. He focused on his frustration and importance before them. Then with anger, he hit the rock twice. God was extremely grieved at this and because of what he did there, Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land.
Why was God so incensed at what Moses did? For two reasons: the first being that Moses misrepresented God before the people; the second was the symbolism of that rock. God’s heart was centered on the redemption of man and what it would take to redeem man to Himself – the sacrifice of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a previous Rock that had been struck once. That Rock represented Christ. That rock was cleft and out of it sprang a river of water. Christ was to be struck in death only once. When Moses struck the Rock twice, it grieved God so, for Christ was not to be sacrificed more than once! Moses did not focus the people’s heart on the Rock, on their Shepherd and God. The second rock also represents Christ. How does it apply to us?
How often as mothers and fathers do we misrepresent God, focusing our children’s failures on their inability to perform to our expectations or their selves? How often have we complained about what we are doing and who we are to them? When we correct them, do we turn their hearts to the Rock of their foundation – the One they should build their lives on?
The second Rock was not to be struck. It was meant to be spoken to. When we are at our wits’ end, we are urged to speak to the Rock. There are times of correction when God wants us to go directly to Him before we confront our children. Moses was not told to berate the children of Israel that time – just to speak to the Rock. Do we have unresolved issues and unrepentant hearts in our children because we have not gone to the Rock first and spoken to Him?
The promise given to Moses was that rivers of water would flow from the rock when Moses spoke to it. That promise is ours, too. What do the rivers of water mean to us? The rivers of water refers to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, renewing us, regenerating us, giving life, filling us with hope and vigor and a new look at the job given to us, giving us courage and strength to go on. When our children fall or give us trouble, or have areas of sin that need correction and punitive measures, let us turn their attention to the Rock; let us speak to the Rock with our children, and out of Him will flow those waters. The Holy Spirit will give you thoughts from Him; He will counsel you and fill you with hope and strength and the fortitude to keep on training your children for Him without tenacity. He will work on your children as they too drink from Him and find strength and forgiveness, a cleansing of their souls, and clarity of mind to see the rightness in your instructions.
One need not always carry that weighed sack of guilt that often tends to plough one down with doubts and fears. Let us be careful to not overstep our boundaries as our Heavenly Father’s representatives to the generation to come. Let us build on the Rock and not on our strength and abilities. Let us freely drink from Him and teach our young ones to drink from Him, too. Thus He will sustain us… until that Day.
