“The Facts on Spanking”

Scripture: “The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother.” -Proverbs 29:15, NIV

As a young man growing up, I recall many of the stories my Mama told me about her childhood. One of those stories was when she was a little girl and was hanging around my grandma. Within this story, Mama was being disrespectful to my Grandma and because of her disrespect, she earned a crucial spanking or beating from my Grandma. After receiving that beating, my Mama learned not to be disrespectful to my Grandma. That lesson was carried on through yours truly; hence, why I do what I can to listen to my elders and not disrespect them. Many of you can say that you all have received spankings or beatings because of something wrong you did at school, because you did not complete a chore at home, or other things. Upon receiving that spanking, it forced you to get it right and correction entered the scene. As a child of God, we ought to be able to receive spankings from our Heavenly Father. We ought to be able to receive the correction that's comes with the beating! We ought to know the facts on spanking and today's main scripture will provide you and me, these facts.

Solomon serves as today's writer and today's book is the great book of Proverbs. Proverbs has some of the greatest nuggets any of us can receive as it comes with our walk with God. These nuggets include wisdom and getting it, trusting God and God alone, the power of words from your mouth, and today, the importance of being spanked (receiving correction). Let's take a moment and digest these facts that King Solomon presents to us when it comes to spanking.

Solomon begins the text with this thought, “The rod of correction imparts wisdom". Oftentimes, we receive chastisement on big things, as well as little things. If this chastisement is of God, it's because He loves you! Not only that, the chastisement brings a lesson for you to take into the next portion of your life. You may get chastised on your ways of spending, so God may reduce your income to teach you a lesson on how to spend your money wisely. You may get chastised about how you talk to people, but at the end of the day, it brings about a change in the way you talk to people and in the way you handle your business! You may get chastised about writing things a certain way, but the chastisement may be necessary in order to get you to write more polished products and papers that your colleagues can understand. One of the greatest chastisements I received was my ability or lack of ability to make eye contact with individuals. Over time, I have managed to improve that aspect in me and others are appreciative of that. Ladies and gentlemen, whatever chastisement you are receiving that's legitimate chastisement, receive it in love, take your "spiritual spanking" like a man/woman, and allow it to place wisdom in you!

Solomon now presents to us the flip side of not receiving the spanking. He tells us "but a child left to himself disgraces his mother". There are some of you who have children and it seems like the children run you and not them. You want to know why? It's because you did not spank their behind or took time to give them proper correction! Because of that, you will be out in public and they will do something that would disgrace you! Oftentimes, our pastors look at us and they shake their respective heads because they have tried to deal with you on something and in turn, you may not have received their correction! God gets tired of us taking His chastisement/spankings for granted. He is doing it because He does not want you to disgrace Him! He does it so you can teach others on how to get things done! He does it so you can be better as your life continues on!

In closing, it's on you, my brother and my sister, and it's on me, to allow God's correction through our supervisor, our spouses, our pastors, and others to help us grow and gain wisdom, instead of making God look bad! Oftentimes, I have watched the "fire" of people not paying attention to God burn them and those around them. My closing thought would be this: Are you going to go up in smokes because of your non-receiving of God's spanking or are you going to blaze a trail where others want to learn from you?