Because I Love You

Correction can hurt.

In previous parent councils, my husband and I had discussed one child’s behavioral issue. When a situation illustrating the issue came up during the breakfast rush, the child was corrected. Child responded very defensively, and a sharp interchange between father and child occurred. Later, I found the child by themselves tearfully trying to learn from the situation.

After listening for awhile, I really didn’t know what to say.

All that came to mind was, “You know, he does it because he loves you. If he didn’t care, he would let you do whatever you wanted, and life would not be good.”

At a church youth gathering at the end of the same day, there was some bantering back and forth about some less sharp fabric shears two of us were trying to use. Later, the owner of the shears (who had heard the whole interchange) asked if she could trade me shears on her way out the door, and my conscience immediately zinged me.

On the drive home, in spite of the jangly Christmas music and general conversation in the car, a loving Heavenly Father quietly and pointedly corrected His daughter through the Holy Ghost.

A similar incident came to mind where my attempt to connect to people through complaining had seriously hurt a family member’s feelings the previous summer. The shears interchange replayed in my head, this time through the shear owner’s perspective. I had done it again.

As I stared at the stars and the road in front of our vehicle, an impression settled in my heart and mind: This has to stop. Now.

Correction can hurt.

The very next day, a scripture jumped out at me from an unmarked page in Revelation 3.

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore, and repent.”

Tears flowed freely as I read and re-read loving, personalized divine communication filled with truth and hope.

If our Heavenly Father didn’t care about us, He would let us do whatever we wanted, and life would not be good.

But He loves us! Perfectly. Unconditionally. No matter what.

That is why He gave us His Son, and Jesus gave His life so we CAN be corrected, repent, and try again to experience joy amidst all the bumbling mistakes and hardships of mortality.