Davidisms: Be Concerned When I No Longer Correct You

This wise teaching is from my college basketball coach, Dean Smith. I continue to this day to draw on the many lessons I learned from him. He was a great man.

I was one of a dozen players on the UNC basketball team. As you can imagine, Coach Smith often needed to correct or discipline us. Sometimes repeatedly. Sometimes relentlessly. Time and time again.

Those of us on the team didn’t always like his corrections. We’d sometimes get hurt feelings. Be disappointed in ourselves. Discouraged. Defensive. Or just plain mad.

But Coach would always remind us that we should really be concerned when he no longer corrected us. That would mean he no longer believed in us. Or cared.

“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid” (Proverbs 12:1).

Coach Smith put this Scriptural truth into practice.

Welcome correction and discipline. It’s the source of all meaningful knowledge.