This morning I read Psalm 78, which rehearses God's dealings with rebellious Israel. He did wonderful things for them - "marvelous things" (v. 12). Yet the more He did for them, the more they rebelled against Him (v. 17). They "tested" Him and "spoke against" Him (vv. 18-19). So the Lord was "furious" and kindled a fire of divine, disciplinary wrath against them (v. 31). But even then "He did not destroy them. Yes, many a time He turned His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath; for He remembered that they were but flesh, a breath that passes away and does not come again" (vv. 38-39).
God is the only perfect parent. Our best attempts as parents to use the rod while remembering mercy are flawed by our own fleshly impulses. At times mercy gives way to excessive leniency, permissiveness, or passivity. Or we can gravitate toward the opposite extreme and "stir up" too much wrath and apply the rod too severely.
At the end of the psalm, we are reminded that God chose David - out of the sheepfolds - to shepherd His people Israel. Likewise, God has chosen us parents - as weak and frail as we may be - to shepherd the hearts of our children. Certainly David had his failures. Nevertheless, God Himself described David as a man after His own heart (Acts 13:22). "So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfullness of his hands" (Psalm 78:72).
May God grant me such character and competence, that my children "may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep His commandments" (v. 7).