Hebrews: 12: 5-7, 11-13

     Brothers and sisters, you have forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children: 
     "My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by Him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges."
    Endure your trials as "discipline";  God treats you as sons. For what "son" is their whom his father does not discipline?  At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.
     So strength your drooping hands and your weak knees.  Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed.

Today's Missal, Oregon Catholic Press

Hebrews: 12: 5-7, 11-13

     And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you, his child?  He said, "My son, don't be angry when the Lord punishes you.  Don't be discouraged when he has to show you where you are wrong.  For when he punishes you, it proves that he loves you.  When he whips you it proves you are really his child."
     Let God train you, for He is doing what any loving father does for his children.  Whoever heard of a son who was never corrected?  If God doesn't punish you when you need it, as other fathers punish their sons, then it means that you aren't really God's son at all-that you don't really belong in his family.
     So, take a new grip with your tired hands, stand firm on your shaky legs, and mark out a straight, smooth path for your feet  so that those who follow you, though weak and lame, will not fall and hurt themselves, but become strong.

The Living Bible, Tyndale House Publishers