Is it good or bad? Yes. It can be either. Doesn’t it depend on how it is viewed? If it is your pain, it generally is viewed as bad, and we want it to stop. However pain often is a signal that something is wrong and needs immediate attention. Yet, a condition may be serious with great potential consequences needing attention, without pain.Last week was my first trip to the ER in all of my seventy-four years. I had no pain and was slow to do something about a bad situation. My heart rate had risen to 150 bpm with no exertion, just sitting in my chair. It had been that way for two hours. My mind and sweet wife knew it wasn’t a good thing, yet I was reluctant to go to the ER. “It should stop soon” I reasoned. Finally, I called my cardiologist’s nurse who said, “Go to ER right now!” Okay, I got it. 

Sadly, a similar scenario is played out in families. Maybe, a child’s attitude shows hints of rebellion, or there is disrespect or mocking of things of the Lord, or they are drawn to unhealthy friends or media that is against your counsel. 

I plead with you, don’t wait until horrible pain sets in, act upon the warning signs. May we be like the wise man who built his family upon the rock of God’s Word and lived it. May we not be like the foolish man who lost his home. 

“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (Matthew 7:24-29).