As a kid I remember my mom spanking my butt or at least trying to spank me as I ran from her through our little apartment. I guess at the time I did not realize that there would be no where to run after a while and she would eventually catch up with me which only made it worse!

Getting a spanking sucks. Its a pain in the butt...literally. And it can also be a pain in your heart...spiritually.

Hebrews 12:11(NIV) says, "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

Another verse in Psalms 3:12(KJV) says, "For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth."

My mom used to spank my behind because she loved me and she did not want me to grow up to be an irresponsible adult. Most parents who love their children discipline them in some way, whether they believe in spanking or not they take some type of measures to redirect bad behavior, whether its time out or grounding their child, they do something to try to alter the child's behavior.

Even though we grow up and move out of our parent's houses there are times when we do things where quite frankly we need to be put in check on. Perhaps we are going in a direction in our lives that is not healthy or beneficial to us or to those around us. Since we no longer have a natural parent standing over us (usually) telling us what we should or should not do discipline can come through other means. On a spiritual level and I dare say a psychological level I believe that we are disciplined through the circumstances that happen in our lives.

Difficult things happen to us and we are faced with challenges that will either make us stronger or make us weaker. It is going to be up to us to decide. The thing that sucks about the way these life lessons occur is that they always seem to come up during a time in our lives when we are comfortable and coasting along. We like our job and we have plans for the future with that company, oh but what? Our job is eliminated and we are downsized. Or, we finally purchase the house of our dreams and bam, our job moves or a family member becomes ill or a child starts acting up...The list could go on.

On the other hand sometimes the lessons we need to learn in our lives, can come at us in a rainfall affect. Pouring down on us constantly, until we feel like there is no way we will make it through whatever we are dealing with. Its as if we get one fire put out and then another fire starts burning in the other corner of our lives barely before the smoke clears. We can be tempted to think we are being punished way more than we can bear.

I've looked at my own kids. They have been through several tough things at their young age. Starting with their dad and I getting divorced. And I have always told them that God must have some awesome things he wants to do in their lives because they are learning some very tough lessons early on. The point I guess I'm trying to make is that life's spankings do not come just to punish us and make us feel totally ashamed of who we are. True there are times when we have done wrong and our wrong behavior needs to be fixed, but for the most part these times come into our lives to strengthen us in our weak places. Don't "they" say that trials come to make us strong?

Perhaps you are facing a tough situation of your own and you do feel like you have just been "spanked." Let me encourage you to keep on keeping on. The tears may come and the anger may rise up. You might "go off" and give everybody who will listen a piece of your mind or you may just crumble in the corner and cry feeling like the world is against you. But today is a new day. Get up. Start again. Try to see and learn the lesson in the midst of the struggle. At least make the "spanking" worth it! You don't want to have to go through this again so get what you are meant to get out of it the first time.