Proverbs 12:1

To learn, you must love discipline; it is stupid to hate correction.

Do you love to be taught? Do you love to be corrected? Do you love to be told you are wrong? Do you appreciate those who tell you how it ought to be done? Of course, most people don’t like those things when delivered in a mean or condescending way, but even if “discipline” comes in an ugly form, are you able to appreciate the fact that it helps you learn?

Solomon makes it clear throughout the Book of Proverbs that wise people pursue knowledge and wisdom while fools don’t give it much thought at all. The truth is, most of us like to be smart or learned about various topics, but paying the price to get there is another story altogether. To grow in knowledge, someone must teach you. You must submit your mind and will to them. You admit their superiority in knowledge along with your inferiority. This requires humility, which most do not have. Only humble souls can willingly submit and be taught by another person.

God has implanted great potential in each of His image bearers. Every one of us has the potential to excel in one way or another but in order to do so, we have to become lifelong learners. But, we are also called to learn how to be better followers of Christ, and that is one of the reasons why God has gifted certain people to be teachers and pastors (2 Tim. 4:2). Additionally, God calls all Believers to help each other by disciplining one another when we see sin creeping up in our lives (Math. 18:15).

God is in your corner and He wants to help you grow in your faith and in your abilities…and that requires learning. It requires correction. It requires discipline. And while the human deliverer of those things might do it in a way that is less than Holy, it’s helpful to remember the ultimate source of it, as the great A.W. Tozer reminds us:

“He remembers our frame and knows that we are dust. He may sometimes chasten us, it is true, but even this He does with a smile, the proud, tender smile of a Father who is bursting with pleasure over an imperfect but promising son who is coming every day to look more and more like the One whose child he is.”