The child is right.
Our discipline of our children (and yes I have some) should not be "in the form of corporal punishment" either.

Children do need discipline, but they do not need to be hit to "enforce" it. We can do better than that.

This past year I learned more about St. Benedict and the Benedictine Promise of growing closer to the Lord and "conversion of life" through stability and obedience. It requires discipline, from within but also submitting to the discipline of God. There is a steadiness about it for me that makes sense of the struggles of life as they join in and contribute to a journey of faith. If St. Benedict was in this year's Lent Madness bracket I would support him... Steady progress, like the tortoise over the hare, wins the race!

But I don't feel that God disciplines me at all. In most instances, when I do stupid or selfish things ("evil", if you will), the consequences follow naturally. In that case, prayer helps me extract myself or restore what I broke, but I don't have this sense that God has to punish me--

Solomon, son of David inspired by God, gave us Proverbs. We are instructed to seek and find the knowledge and understanding of God. The law past down from one generation to the next is of mercy and truth. Solomon instructs us to trust in the Lord. The Lord chastens, chastening is translated from the Greek word, paideia which means nurture, instruction. As parents, we are first to seek the knowledge and understanding of God and nurture and instruction our children. This is not limited to our blood lineage but expanded to all as Christ commanded us.

The Message version of the Bible sheds a different light on Hebrews 12:3-11

3 When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! 4 In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through - all that bloodshed! 5 So don't feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children? My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either. 6 It's the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. 7 God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training, 8 the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? 9 We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live? 10 While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God's holy best. 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.

I'm listening to a teaching series by R.C. Sproul on reformed theology ( www.ligonier.org ). I love him. Some useful quotes from the lecture that apply to today's discussion:
"I can't do anything to justify myself" , "those who are justified are at the same time 'just' and 'sinners' (paraphrasing Martin Luther) , "the reason why God counts us as righteous is because of the work of Christ in our behalf" , "the only grounds by which God will view me as righteous is the grounds of somebody else's righteousness, the righteousness of Christ"

I take all this to mean that there is an important difference between believing 'in' Christ, and believing that Christ will help me. I can't earn the trust of God. I must trust God.

"Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.'" (Matthew 22:37-39)

"If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

I do not think God wants to mold us to be children who obey, but rather children who love.

All of the comments are so profound and so moving. I also do not believe that God punishes us. I believe that this reading goes back to the old testament when the Jewish Tribes believed that God punished or God rewarded.
Sometimes when I face difficult problems or suffer the consequences of poor decisions, I tend to dispaire and ask God, "Why"? Then I can only turn to the scriptures, I turn to prayer and even praise the Lord for what is happening because I know that nothing can remove me from the love of God. Slowly, ever so slowly, the tide begins to turn and the circumstances begin to change. Things get far better than they were before and I have a stronger faith than I did before. So a lesson has been learned through God's caring and nurturing love.