How to Get Good Godly AdviceSample

Day Seven - Embrace Correction

Sometimes your spiritual mentors and advisers will correct you. Now, nobody likes to be corrected. Hebrews 12:11 says, “No correction is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful!” Have you ever had a teacher or boss correct you? You might have felt embarrassed or humiliated or, at the very least, sheepish.

It’s normal to feel that way; but if you were doing something the wrong way, wasn’t it good to be corrected so you could learn to do it right?

I don’t want to keep doing something the wrong way -- I want to get it right. That means learning to receive and act on correction. It’s part of our training. I’ve met so many Christians whose lives are going in the wrong direction and God sent someone to try and correct them—but they wouldn’t listen.

It’s so important to be correctable. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines correction as “a change that makes something right, true, accurate, etc. The act of making something (such as an error or a bad condition) accurate or better.”[6] Learn to embrace correction so you can get better!

The Bible has a lot to say about correction. Proverbs 3:11–12 says, “My son [or daughter], do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction; for whom the Lord loves He corrects….” Proverbs 10:17 says, “He who keeps instruction is in the way of life, but he who refuses correction goes astray.” Proverbs 12:1 says that “whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.” Wow!

Very often when we are corrected we want to defend ourselves. We may think, “How dare they tell me that I’m wrong!” But isn’t it better to stop, turn, and go the other way? The alternative is ugly indeed: to keep going in the wrong direction just to save face. That won’t get you where you want to go.

The next time someone corrects you, remember these verses and say, “Thank you.” Determine in your heart that you will be easily corrected, and that you will be someone who gets on board with the right direction quickly. Correction is a good thing. Let’s learn how to become better and better at receiving it and acting on it.

Was this plan helpful to you? It was adapted from Key #5 in my book “How to Make the Right Decision Every Time.” You can read the first part here.