Never Disciplined

"About that time time, David's son Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, began boasting, 'I will make myself king.' So he provided himself with chariots and charioteers and recruited fifty men to run in front of him. Now his father, King David, had never disciplined him at any time, even by asking, 'Why are you doing that?' Adonijah had been born next to Absalom, and he was very handsome." 
I Kings 1:5-6

Something told me it was a bad idea, but I did it anyway. When the family pictures came back and every one revealed a ten year old boy making the worst possible faces at the camera, my earlier suspicions were confirmed. The paddling I received served as a strong deterrent for me to avoid rude and disrespectful behavior in the future. 

David ran into the problem of undisciplined children over and over and over again. Adonijah was never disciplined. He was a boaster. He was very handsome. Evidently, he was quite stuck on himself. Being self-centered is a very natural way to do life. It takes a strong nudge to move to an other-centered life. A key component to that nudge is, you guessed it, discipline.

In the book of Hebrews, the author makes it very clear that God is a Father who will indeed discipline his children. Why? One word - Love. Failing to discipline is a failure to love. Today, we can choose to chafe under God's discipline or learn from it. Adonijah ended up dying an untimely death after living a life untempered by discipline. How will our story read? 

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