A Spiritual Spanking

We never listen the first time do we?

I tell my kids it’s time to get ready for bed so they need to go brush their teeth. Ten minutes later they’re still standing at the sink playing with who knows what.

“Brush your teeth!” I yell.

They quickly act like I had just caught them in the middle of getting their toothbrushes ready as they yell back, “I am.” Or they have some excuse like, “I had to go potty.”

Uh, huh.

So, another minute passes and I don’t hear their toothbrushes. “Brush your teeth!”

“Ok!” Then some jabbering and giggling, but no toothbrush.

“You can’t talk and brush your teeth at the same time. Brush your teeth!”

“Okay!” Still no toothbrush sounds, only quieter jabbering and giggling.

“If I have to tell you one more time, you’re getting a spanking!”

“Okay!” and immediately I hear the toothbrushes roar to life.

Why is it they take so much time getting done what they know has to get done? It’s not like it’s something new, we do this every night. It isn’t as if they didn’t know it was time to brush their teeth, they had been told at least four times. And every night it’s the same routine. I don’t want to spank them, so I just keep yelling. Maybe if I would spank them the first time it would be done, and hopefully they’d learn their lesson and would brush their teeth from then on whenever I told them to. Maybe not.

But how often do we do this with God? He reminds us to read his word. “Okay,” we say, and then we go on our merry way without opening our Bible even once during the day. The next Sunday at church the sermon is on the importance of staying in God’s word. “Okay,” we say again, “I really need to get in the habit of reading.” But another week passes without our Bibles being opened. At Bible study we hear about a scripture that God used to really touch something in one of our sisters lives and we think, “Wow! God spoke to her through scripture. I need to get into the Word so I can have that kind of experience.” But yet, more time passes and our Bibles stay closed. God loves us so he’s going to discipline us to get us to do what we need to do. Staying out of His word when he has revealed to us, through the Holy Spirit and our circumstances, that we need to be in the word is disobedience. It’s sin. So, maybe he’s going to give us a spiritual spanking to get our attention once and for all. I don’t know what this would look like for each individual, but I know what it looked like and felt like to me.

I was on a short-term mission trip in Gonaives, Haiti and we spent one lunch period at a feeding center. While there, we saw a little girl, maybe 3 or 4 years old who was malnourished and severely dehydrated. As we passed out food, one of the women (Anna) in our group held this little girl who had passed out. She tried to wake her up to eat, but the little girl wouldn’t awaken. The few times she was able to open her eyes, her eyes just rolled back into her head. One of the workers at the feeding center came over and took the little girl’s pulse. I remember thinking, “I’m watching a child die!” Someone handed over a water bottle to Anna who was able to get some water into the little girl’s mouth. At first nothing happened. But then slowly the girl came around and started sucking down the water like she hadn’t had any for days.

That night as I journaled the events of the day, I asked God why He had shown me that little girl. I knew there had to be a reason. Well, God gave me a spiritual pop on my spiritual behind. He reminded me that before leaving for the trip I had been deep in His word, pouring over it for an hour or two each day, but since arriving in Haiti, I hadn’t opened my Bible. “Child,” I felt him telling me, “just like that girl, you are malnourished. She may be dying physically from lack of physical food, but you are dying spiritually from lack of spiritual food.” Immediately the words of Mark 4:4 came to mind. “Jesus replied, ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” And then I was led to John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word and the word was with God and the word was God.” (Emphasis mine). “Child,” he told me, “I am the word and you are not living in the word, therefore you are not filling your spiritual gut up with sustenance. You may be here in this place on a spiritual mission that I sent you on, but if you do not remain in me I cannot remain in you and you will starve to death.”

I wish I could say that I now spend time every day in the Word. But I don't. Just like my kids don't always brush their teeth immediately upon being told to do so. But I try. I am better. And when I start to slide backwards God gets my attention by bringing this spiritual spanking to mind. It is a lesson I will never forget.