When You Feel Bad Giving Consequences

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This Week's Devotion Was Inspired By:

Hebrews 12:11

For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

FROM HEAD KNOWLEDGE TO HEART KNOWLEDGE:

1. evaluate wiTh honesty: When it comes to discipline, how do you really feel? Do you feel bad? Or maybe, you feel like they 'had it coming?' Where do you fall on that continuum?

2. start right now. Ask the Lord for courage to discipline at the right moments. And, for a compassionate and caring heart to guide your students most lovingly -- and to discipline them in both the here and now, but also in the way that will help them in their future.

KEY POINT: Discipline may not be pleasant in the moment, but it produces good fruit in our students, and thus is a loving and caring thing to do.

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Transcript

Do you ever feel bad for having to hold students accountable, get on them, or give out consequences? Sometimes it feels like we're being mean, even though we're not. But I want to talk for a second about a verse in Hebrews that can really help us with this, if that is what you're feeling

So, Hebrews 12:11 says: "For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

Now, in context, this is talking about how God disciplines and trains us. But this principle absolutely also applies in our classroom. See, what it's basically saying is that in the moment, discipline—training, whether it's punitive discipline or whether it's just self-discipline, working hard at something, is not normally easy in the moment, but later it yields results.

I think, for example, when I was training for a marathon, getting up early and running miles and miles and miles wasn't necessarily always pleasant, but it produced in me endurance and the ability to actually accomplish my goal, right?

So, anytime we're having discipline, doing something hard, it's hard in the moment, but it can produce great fruits. And that's what we're doing with our students. When we are holding them accountable, when we get on them, when we don't let them get away with stuff, and yes, even when we have to give them consequences, we are establishing discipline in their lives.

And no, it might not be fun in the moment. It might not be fun for them. It might not be fun for us. But we are doing something that is good for them, putting discipline into their life.

So, it's not even just that we're helping make a more conducive classroom—we are also helping them. Even though it seems painful for the moment, it is producing fruit. So, the reason I'm bringing all this up is just to encourage you to continue to do what is best for your students.

Don't allow what's easy or might seem nice in the moment to keep you from doing what is actually most loving and caring for them in the long term.

So, next time you know you need to correct a student or discipline them, and you just find yourself feeling bad, remember the truth of this verse, and kindly but firmly correct them and give them that instruction and discipline that they truly do need.

FROM HEAD KNOWLEDGE TO HEART KNOWLEDGE:

1. evaluate wiTh honesty: When it comes to discipline, how do you really feel? Do you feel bad? Or maybe, you feel like they 'had it coming?' Where do you fall on that continuum?