Last Christmas when I had gone home, my sister, who works as the principal of a school, invited me to her school one day. I was on vacation and had nothing to do and so agreed to come to her school the next day. When I had gone there, the students were writing their half yearly exams. My sister took me to each class, introducing me to the staffs there and just briefing me about the school and about what was happening there.
The students were writing their exams and there were some cases were students had been caught cheating during the exams. This was something that really upset my sister and she was just trying hard to make sure that there was absolutely no cheating during the exams. On the day I had been to School, two boys had been caught cheating again. My sister decided that it was time a strict action had to be taken and she told the boys to ask their parents to come and meet her the next day, and if the parents did not come, the boys would be given no marks (zero) in that particular subject in which they had cheated. This was pretty hard on the boys and one of them began crying.
Now about my Sister, she is a very gentle and a very soft person. She gets moved easily when someone cries and its very very rare that she punishes any students. Its rare to even see her yell at anyone. I was surprised when I saw her being so strict with those boys this time. The boys came crying to the office and apologising for what had happened and promising that they would never repeat this again. But my sister was firm in what she said and said the decision was final and there was going to be no change. After the boys had left I asked her, why she was so strict. She said that this had been going on for sometime and these boys had been caught cheating during the exams earlier as well. And each time she would decide on a punishment the boys would come and apologise and promise to be good in the future and she would relent. And she said that this had resulted in the problem getting worse. And then she said something amazing.
She said that it hurt her to see the boys cry and look so upset. She knew the boys were very afraid to tell this at home to their parents and get them to meet the Principal the next day. She said that she really wanted to take the punishment back and let the boys free. But she also knew that if she did that, this practise of cheating would never stop. She said that if a strict action was taken once, the kids would hear about what had happened and that would help in stopping this practise and help mould the kids into better people. She had to harden her heart and see the kids hurt for sometime, for the good of the kids.
As I sat in her office, I was thinking about our Father in heaven. He looks down on us with love. Many a times we let Him down and fail Him. There are times he has to harden His heart and let me face the consequences just so that it would mould me into a better person. It hurts Him to see us go through the after effects of our sins, but he lets us go knowing that it is for my good. But through it all, inspite of the sins we have committed, He stays near us and helps us, comforting and encouraging and walking with us, till we are finally out victorious.
Sometime back I asked my brother to share with me the thought he had learnt during his morning devotion time. ( I was checking to see if he had actually read the Bible that morning ;) ) And he shared a beautiful thought. He said that he had read the portion where the Israelites keep sinning against God and God is finally very upset with them and decides to punish them but through the punishment God was with them and constantly encouraging them through his promises. My brother said - Though God Himself punished them, through all the difficulties God had an eye on His people and He was with them.
Our God is such a loving God. Probably there are times we go wrong and upset Him but he would never desert us. He will never forsake his children. If he has let us go through the consequences, He has done so with love, knowing it would make us better children of His. He would never let us go through anything which would harm us. Even when we sin and are bad, our God is always good.
Lamentations 3:22 - Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
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