Life is a learning process, isn’t it? We don’t stop learning when we become an adult. I find that I learn every day. Hopefully something new every day. Perhaps a new revelation of truth. But also learning how to walk a life pleasing to God. That means I will often receive correction, from God, and even from others.
It’s not always easy to receive correction, but it is a good thing. It helps us to mature. It helps us to grow in the likeness of Christ. How do we receive instruction? By keeping a soft and tender heart.
To keep a tender heart toward our husbands is the blessing of a good marriage. The Bible tells us that divorce happens through “hardness of heart” (Matthew 19:6-9). We must always guard against a hard heart.
To keep a tender heart is the blessing of a peaceful life.
To keep a tender heart leads us to righteousness. Hebrews 12:11 (HCSB) says: “No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
We train our children by instruction and discipline. But there is always more for us to learn and grow into also, and we are continually trained as we receive instruction and correction.
I love the TPT translation which says: “Now all discipline seems to be more pain than pleasure at the time, yet later it will produce a TRANSFORMATION OF CHARACTER, bringing a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who yield to it.”
Don’t you love those words? TRANSFORMATION OF CHARACTER! Do you want this for your own life? Do you want this for your children’s lives? I know we all do. It comes with YIELDING— yielding to the disciplines of life, instruction from the Word, and correction from people in our lives.
Let’s keep soft and tender hearts.
Love from Nancy Campbell