Today in Bible study we talked about imitating God, our perfect parent. One of the passages we studied is the one in the post title.

The question is, how can I be merciful to my children? The problem is, I feel guilty if I don’t discipline every time David or Bethel disobey. Is mercy simply not giving correction sometimes? And if so, how do I determine those times?

As I said to the ladies in the class (and mostly to myself), maybe we need to better understand God’s mercy. And maybe we need to ask God for wisdom to know when to be merciful.

Here’s one of my ideas: When a child faces the natural consequences of his sin. This idea actually came from an article Lee’s dad wrote. He mentions his friend nearly blowing off his hand while they were goofing off with some ammunition. The kids were scared to that the dad would punish the son, but when he saw the bloodied hand, he simply wrapped up the hand and took his son to the hospital. Lee’s dad says that this was not a time to discipline the son for disobeying dad. I think I agree, and I think it is a good example of our ability to show our children mercy.

Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Luke 6:36