"

All discipline 

for the moment

 seems not to be joyful, 

but sorrowful; 

yet to those who have been trained by it, 

afterwards it yields 

the 

peaceful fruit of righteousness."

Hebrews 12:11

I started this daily parenting devotional app that I have on my phone through my bible app. Today when reading the devotional this verse was applied.

I remember when I was a child and getting disciplined by my parents. Never once though, did they do it out of anger. I'm sure they felt angry. This feeling can be hard to control. But they always would calmly talk to me before discipline action took place which I know calmed them down. I know with my own kids that when they do something that they know Dennis and I have told them not to do and they directly disobey our insides begin to boil. I have to take a mental moment and just pray. This then helps my boiling lever come down so that I can begin the process of talking with them and explaining why they are go to get disciplined. 

Lately, the girls have been just picking on each other. One will come to me and say the other was sticking their tongue out and then the other one will say they were being called a lier. The past two weeks this has become a daily hurdle. I have found out that the sticking the tongue out is usually them licking their lips very sloooowly but while they are in a disagreement and all while looking at the other one. It's sneaky and pretty clever, but i've caught on. 

This has become quiet tiresome and annoying but Dennis and I are determined to not let this character of them continue.  Our goal and only through God can it be accomplished is to raise our kids up for the Lord. To show them how to respond to someone else when situations arise that can bring quarrelsome behavior, ungodly actions, bitterness, anger, selfishness, within them. How to redirect these feelings that will be pleasing to the Lord. 

Sticking tongues out and calling each other liars mights be very childish behavior and maybe minor things to some people, but not stopping it now and explaining it to our children why we don't do these things can lead to bigger and harder issues later in life. We are preparing our children even now for the world. Our difference though is preparing them to live in the world for our Savior but to not compromise and become apart of this world. 

Even what might seem the smallest thing or maybe not a big deal can be a big deal later on. I'm thankful for my husband and how him and I see eye to eye in how we raise our children. We see Biblical truths and that's what we encourage others to seek when seeking direction in raising children. It's beyond hard disciplining our children, but God gives us such a peace through His word and that's what we have to hold onto. I truly feel our children will be best friends later in life and truly have a heart to lift each other up. 

"I care about what you care about because I care about YOU!"

"Train up a child in the way he should go:

When he is old, he will not depart from it."

Proverbs 22:6