{"id":1061,"date":"2012-04-27T08:00:16","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T12:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayspirituality\/?p=1061"},"modified":"2012-04-24T19:13:27","modified_gmt":"2012-04-24T23:13:27","slug":"what-about-punishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2012\/04\/what-about-punishment.html","title":{"rendered":"What About Punishment?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I remember one day I was hot and tired, making dinner in the kitchen while the children were running around me playing. A daughter stopped and asked me a question\u2014an abstract question that required genuine effort to wrap my brain around before giving her an answer that didn\u2019t generate forty-two more questions.<\/p>\n

I answered calmly. She accepted my answer and flashed back to her playing. I stood there briefly in slight amazement. \u201cWow, I really had a lot of patience on that one,\u201d I thought. Then I thanked God.<\/p>\n

The patience came from God. I was not in the mood to be patient and yet it was there.<\/p>\n

Then it dawned on me<\/a>. God is constantly pouring out patience and other good experiences because God is good.<\/p>\n

If I refuse to accept the goodness, I am only punishing myself.<\/p>\n

So, all this stuff about God punishing us for our sins is backwards. Sin is self-punishing, self-destructive. God on the other hand, can\u2019t take away good. God can\u2019t take away our rights to health and purpose and strength. God gives goodness and we can accept<\/a> all this goodness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I remember one day I was hot and tired, making dinner in the kitchen while the children were running around me playing. A daughter stopped and asked me a question\u2014an abstract question that required genuine effort to wrap my brain around before giving her an answer that didn\u2019t generate forty-two more questions. I answered calmly.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[450,451],"class_list":["post-1061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-work","category-relationships","tag-cooking-dinner","tag-patience-with-children"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat About Punishment? - Everyday Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2012\/04\/what-about-punishment.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What About Punishment? - Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I remember one day I was hot and tired, making dinner in the kitchen while the children were running around me playing. 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