discipline camp

During the June holidays, i went for a GB camp(Girls' Brigade). our discipline was seriously all over the place, so we had to fix that during the camp-discipline camp. sounds pretty threatening, isn't it? bet ur thinking about jumping jacks and screaming leaders and punishments and... well, stoppit. you're freaking me out!!haha.sure, we had to do loads of stuff like running(with our boots on) and drill for 3 hours straight and stuff like that... but our seniors made sure we had lotta FUN. in the afternoon, we had a 'neighbourhood walk' in a way, which basically involved a 'treasure hunt' all around the area-that is, Orchard Road and the Botanic Gardens. Whoo! it was SO fun!!!!we went Shaw Centre, Takashimaya, library@orchard, etcetcetc... it totally ROCKED. haha. then we got to cook our own dinner when we came back!! Maggi Mee!!yayy!!!!haha. only downset was that we had to cook dinner for the teachers:( 'cos my group took the bag with the most food. but nevermind that. the next morning, we were woken up at 4.00 am-to be told that our seniors were 'kidnapped' and we had to play a load of games to try and 'free' them.
and the discipline camp got me thinking. the camp theme verse, Hebrews 12:11, says that 'no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. later on however, it produces a harvest of rteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.' and well...why are we punished in the first place? in our discipline camp, our seniors were stricter than usual, because our discipline was pretty lousy. when we forgot to wash the cups after breakfast, our seniors actually made us do 30 jumping jacks and 20 push ups in punishment. Ouch! but they even did it together with us, although they were the ones that ended up cleaning the cups in the end...
so: why are we punished? do our punishers just love the exhilaration and pleasure of seeing their 'subjects' get tortured? No! as the Bible says,God only punishes us because he loves us. and the same for our parents. they want us to CHANGE. when we're doing something wrong, they punish us so that we will learn and know not to repeat it again. God(nor our parents) isn't some sadistic person who enjoys seeing us suffer! For example, after our seniors made us do jumping jacks and pushups, i know now that we should never leave our job for others to do; because its really unfair. imagine washing cups that you know werent used by you! eww!! (well, i had to do it before-after the church service. some of the cups had LIPSTICK on the rim...and the lipstick doesnt exactly wash off with soap and water. nope, you've got to SCRUBSCRUBSCRUB with your thumb to get it off. eww!!) so think about it. when your parents punish you, do they have a reasonable reason? maybe you got into trouble at school. maybe you answered back. remember, we have to pay respect to our elders!
and who exactly enjoys punishment? sure, our 'punishers' must have all been punished at one time or another. who hasnt?
i have some friends in Red Cross Youth whose seniors actually enjoy punishing them..or so they say. i wonder why. but then...hopefully its all in fun. i've heard that the seniors bully the juniors 'cos when they were juniors they were punished because...etc.etc. its one vicious cycle. i hope that one day(if this is really true) that the seniors will realise that what they are doing is wrong. they should concentrate on breaking the cycle, not continuing it.
i know this has been loong preaching, and it probably sounds like a bunch of politically correct answers. however politically correct or wrong these words are, they are my true thoughts about discipline. thank you for reading up to this point(in fact, i congratulate you) if you have any comments, please leave them on my tagboard or send me an email at tintinetmilou.vesper@gmail.com .
tInTiN

p.s. whoever you may think i am, i am TRULY AND REALLY a teenager from Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) in Singapore. a REAL TEENAGER. i am not some parent or counselor or teacher..*shudders* i mean, my mum doesnt even know how to set up a blog!

hi!!

this is just to say:this blog is unlike other blogs. yep. i will post my reflections about stuff in the Bible.events that have happened in my life which made me think about the Lord. remember! all have sin, and fall short of the glory of God, however God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (this was taken from the Bible. i think Romans and John 3:16) so no matter what you do, whatever happens to you, Jesus will always be there for you!:)