A Pain Weighed in Tons
The translation of this scripture I am most familiar with reads: Every decision you make comes with – the Pain of Discipline OR the Pain of Regret. Yes, this is my coach speak and I try not to spend time reinventing the wheel. I had that barked at me while I played football and I preach a variation of the statement to my own players. I try to convince them that it is much easier to sacrifice sweat and tears during the offseason so they do not endure the pain of regret they may feel on a Friday night in the fall after a tough loss. Jim Rohn says the pain of discipline can be weighed in ounces while the pain of regret is weighed in tons.
The hard fact for me is that my decisions as a son, husband, and father follow this same logic. Hebrews 10:10-12 is not limited to physical challenges. Maintaining a budget for our family that honored God caused years of disagreements and headaches for Jen and I. Why she is still with me after those fiscal “discussions” is purely a God thing. Finding time to lead a bible study with some high school boys throws a wrench in my Wednesday each week. There is always something else that tries to squeeze me out that time block and I am not good with keeping margin in my schedule. Sacrificing professional dreams of being a head coach so I could actually see my family in the evenings led to levels of pain I struggled through. The pain of discipline is hard, but in all of these cases I have experienced God’s “harvest of righteousness”.
I would like to leave us all with a challenge as we head into Father’s Day weekend. My earthly father passed away nine years ago this November. He chose to be absent from 99% of my life, even though he lived but one-mile away from me during my childhood. I still live with a terrible regret of never putting my arms around him and telling him that I forgive him and that I love him. My prayer is that we can all take the time this week to forgive one person that has hurt us in the past. This discipline will be tough to execute, but I can assure you that other option is a much heavier burden to carry with you.
All that I can say to this entry is Thank you.
Thanks much Bry-Baby. I so appreciate your words of insight and challenge in the areas of discipline and pain. Thank you…for this F1A…but also for being a friend to me & Britt…and one of my girls’ “other daddys”…a man I can count on to be there when I or one of my 3 lovely ladies need him. God has used…and will continue to use…your life-long and daily struggles to draw you to Him…and through that you will continue to draw others to Him as well. Thank you for facing and working through your pain(s) head-on. Love you (and your family) my friend. – Doug
Really enjoyed reading this, it is a great reminder that God is in the hard things as well as the easy things.