Don't Worry, Be Happy

“Don’t Worry, Be Happy”

No! I won’t do it! You can’t make me! He didn’t have to so why do I? How come he got one and I didn’t? It isn’t fair! Have you heard that before? Do you know where I’m coming from?

Our kids or grandkids say these things a lot don’t they? Don’t you just get tired of hearing those things? He touched me! Don’t lay your head here; I had my arm there! He got that seat last time, I want it this time. It’s almost enough to make you mad; sometimes it does make you mad doesn’t it. And then the kids hear, if you don’t stop that I’m going to stop this car and come back there. Most of the time they stop, but then there’s the times when they don’t and you have to stop and go back there.

Most of the time in my family, my wife is the one that goes back there. Actually she is the one that says if you don’t stop, dad’s going to stop this car and I’m going to come back there. I can just sit in the drivers seat paying attention to the road; block them out of my mind while I’m quietly singing a song on the radio. She’s over there saying, don’t you hear any of what’s going on and I say what, what’s going on?

I would have to say that my wife is the disciplinarian in my family. I know that the man is typically the one to discipline the children, but not in my family. My mom used to say just wait until your dad gets home. I knew what that meant, that when he got home I was going to get it and I dreaded my dad coming home. I don’t want my kids to dread when I come home. My grandma used to do the same thing with my mom and say just wait until your dad gets home. My grandfather told me some years later that many times he would take my mom in the other room to spank her and just make the sounds of spanking her so grandma would be satisfied that mom got her punishment.

I’ve found that I’m a lot like my grandpa. I very much dislike spanking my kids. My mom used to say this hurts me much more that it hurts you, and I would say then don’t hit me and you won’t have to hurt yourself. It’s true, it does hurt me more to spank my kids than it hurts them. I can’t stand to see my kids hurt. We’ve tried all kinds of discipline for our kids other than spankings. Some work and then some don’t.

I remember my uncle some years ago coming up to my grandpa, giving him a big hug and saying thank you for all those spankings you gave me as kid. I didn’t like you very much back then for spanking me (I guess he actually spanked his boys and pretended with my mom), but it has made me a better man today because of what you did back then.

Kids don’t understand, do they, that when we discipline them for doing something wrong or not doing something, it’s because we love them. They think at the time that we are just mean to them. Have you heard? You only had me so I could do your work for you, or maybe you’ve heard I hate you? I heard a few of those things and it almost makes me want to sit down and cry. I love my kids more than anything on this earth as do most parents and we hate it when they don’t realize that what we do, we do to benefit them. To make their path easier than ours was.

God is the same way with us. We are God’s children and at times He has to discipline us doesn’t He. We often don’t see it. We often don’t see that what happens in our life as discipline from God do we?

We see things in this world happen all the time. Many see the things happening in the world and say that there is no God. They say that if we have a loving God how can He make these evil things happen. How can there be a God that cares for me and yet there are bad things happening to me all the time.

You see people don’t understand God. Much like we as parents are not understood by our children all the time. If you look back in your life and on the things you have done and the punishments you’ve received for those things, you come to understand, in time, that those punishments served a purpose to make you a better person. It’s the same way with God. God allows things to happen in our lives to strengthen us as Christians and to draw us to Him.