God punishes.

Nathan Admonishing David (Rembrandt)

For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.

(Hebrews 12:6, New Living Translation)

I'm still reflecting on my angry Tuesday night post. One of the things I understand today is how I willfully disobeyed God. I knew that he did not want me to post all my sarcasm, even while I typed it. I rationalized. "Hey, I process my thoughts and feelings by writing. Writing is part of who I am. I wither if I don't get to do it. I'm using a gift that God gave me."

The next morning, I woke up agitated (figured it was just a lack of coffee at the time). Then, with a pile of things I wanted to do before going off to work, my wife got busy with something she was doing and ignored my agenda. I was hurt and angry.

Today I understand that this was God's discipline - "chastisement" as the King James Bible puts it. God was saying, "What you perceive your wife to be doing is actually what you did to me last night. You (Tim) ignored my (God's) priorities and did what you wanted."

Uncomfortable and embarrassing? You betcha. But there was a profound peace once I confessed that I was in the wrong and repented of it by deleting the offending words I'd typed.

The peace came because God's discipline is always an expression of love for those who belong to Him.

Thank you, Father, for disciplining me. Thank you for caring enough to keep me in the way that leads to life with you.