Every son needs to hear his father say, quote, Son, accept tough discipline in training. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed striving against sin, and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him for whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives. Hebrews 12 verses 3 through 6, chapter 9, training harder than the real thing.

If a father understands up front what his training principles will be, he will do a better job of preparing his son for action. All my life I heard my father's maxim, quote, the training should be harder than the real thing, unquote. He repeated this statement to our family dozens of times as we were growing up when referring to some taxing moment we were experiencing. My dad's survival as a pilot depended on the fact that, wherever possible, the training was harder than the real thing would be. The cumulative experiences of planned hardship and testing in training prepared him for the moments ahead where in a flash he would have to respond the right way or be killed.

Training that is harder than the real thing has a way of refining the intuitive and instantaneous reactions. This is the stuff of survival. This is the backdrop of mission accomplished. A wide range of experiences and disciplines made up my father's training to be a pilot. There were hardships, joys, and disappointments all adding up to the training that helped keep him alive during World War II.

I've heard many stories about his training to be a World War II pilot. Here are a few things he experienced during his training. Opportunity, fear, privilege, exhaustion, danger, stupid mistakes, mentors good and bad, competition, disasters, recoveries, embarrassment, exposure, failure, • Mentors, good and bad • Competition • Disasters • Recoveries • Embarrassment • Exposure • Failure • Comradery • Sickness • Risk • Competence • laughter. There is no shortcut to success, rather it is forged during the hours and hours of arduous, repetitive, exhausting training. As noted in earlier chapters, it is recognized there are times when it is impossible to match any training to the savagery that takes place in the true battle.

However, the purpose of training is to prepare diligently and wholeheartedly for the worst case we can anticipate. To create prepared and appropriate reactions to as many situations we can imagine and trust God to make up the difference as he determines in his wisdom. Sons need to know that there are dangerous pitfalls that can keep them from the full value of their training. A father must, number one, discuss fear. Fear of failure or embarrassment, sickness, hardship or exhaustion can ruin the effectiveness of your training, yielding a self-perpetuating poor attitude and sucking the value out of the experience.

Fear of failure is usually a form of self-love causing us to look for an inexpensive, easy, painless, trouble-free training experience. We instinctively shrink away from true training, the multi-year experiences which require repetition and, more often than not, two steps forward and one step back. This is important for both fathers and sons to grasp. They may be tempted to throw up their hands and say, This is too much of a hassle. Remember the words of the wise, the best cults need breaking in.

A father must, number two, be compassionate in truth. Some fathers equate compassion with taking the easy road through life and causing as little pain as possible. Fathers must be willing to take their children through some of the pain that is associated with discipline. Fathers must know that their job is not to constantly please their children by approving all of their own inclinations. On one hand, fathers must focus their activities on what their sons are gifted or able to do.

And on the other hand, they must expand their experiences beyond their son's own inclinations. There are times when training should be very difficult for children to endure. A good father will be committed to making his children come to grips with greater things than the children can conceive in their own minds. Of course, there is always the danger of exasperating children, but these dangers Do not erase the responsibility to discipline. Fathers have a responsibility to provide training that is harder than the real thing, and sometimes harder than children desire.

I am sure that the biblical character Joseph understood this, Genesis 3750. He was buffeted by years of rejection and imprisonment and slavery in his preparation to rule. The training was hard, but God had something in mind for which Joseph could never have prepared on his own. Only hard training could have prepared him. Fathers who train this way will be able to train up their children in the discipline and admonition of the Lord.

In the process they will not be afraid to discipline them, teach them, correct them and encourage them, remembering that the training often needs to be harder than the real thing. In training."