Training for Maturity

In my other blog, I wrote at length tonight about the training that we're doing with Tobin to help him learn submission and obedience, so naturally the verses that have been on my mind come from Hebrews 12.

I'm most familiar with the NIV, but The Message is refreshing to read for its new way of expressing thoughts. It reads like this in verse 11:

At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

"The well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God." That's exactly what I'm shooting for with Tobin, and that's exactly what I'm striving for myself.