God Disciplines His Children
By Michelle Lazurek
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their fathers? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Hebrews 12:7-8
As a pastor’s kid, my daughter always felt like the whole church was watching her. Although she was a great kid growing up, she went through a rebellious streak throughout her teen years. Desperate to fit in with the youth group kids, she said and did things in private that were far from stellar.
One day, we discovered inappropriate content on her phone. When we confronted her about this, she said she felt like everyone's eyes were on her and that she couldn't be who she wanted to be. She said even a youth group kid said her sins were worse because she was a pastor's kid.
It broke our hearts when we discovered this. We never expected anything from our children. Besides attending church regularly, they could be whoever they wanted to be. We never allowed congregation members to manipulate or scold our children for what they deemed inappropriate behavior.
When we discovered the inappropriate material, she sang on our worship team. It was one thing to rebel and have your way when you're not serving in the church. But in our minds, if she was going to be in a leadership position, she had to act like a leader.
After hours of a heated debate, I told her she needed to step down from the worship team for a time. She needed to discover who she was and who she wanted to be. We would not allow her to be one person on Sunday and another on Monday through Saturday. Her actions had to match her heart and her mind. If her heart and mind were not in submission to the Lord, she couldn't have a spotlight on her to worship him.
She didn’t want to step down from the worship team because she wanted to sing, but we felt she needed to set an example for the rest of the youth by striving to be more Christlike rather than moving toward rebellion. After another church member commented on her clothing one week after church, she seemed to change her tune.
She didn't like that other people saw this about her. She threw out all her inappropriate clothing and began dressing more appropriately. She also removed all inappropriate material and allowed us to monitor her phone for a while. After a suitable period of time had passed, we let her return to the worship team.
One of the arguments she made during those long nights of arguing with her was that other people didn't have the same scrutiny as her. But we gently reminded her of the above verse. God disciplines all his children, no matter what they are going through, such as financial hardship, relationship conflicts, or health crises.
God disciplines his children when they act in sinful ways in private and public. Every person who is found in Christ will eventually be punished. It's never pleasant, but God does this so they can pursue holiness and have a genuine relationship with Him.
All of us endure God's discipline at some point in our lives. This does not mean that God doesn't love us. On the contrary, this verse tells us that God disciplines those he loves. Those whose lives seem to be going great and with no hardship ever find they are not living a life worthy of Christ. All these children go through periods of discipline. However, the character that results after that discipline is what God cares about the most.
Be the person God wants you to be. Allow discipline to refine your character so that, in the end, you will become more Christlike and exemplify Christ to the world than ever before.
Father, let us be the people who endure discipline. When discipline comes, let us not complain but rather submit. Allow that discipline to refine our characters and make us better examples of Christ to the world. Amen.
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/witsarut sakorn
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Originally published Monday, 08 June 2026.
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