The hard part of parenting

It is very difficult training our children to have self-control. Especially when I don't have as much of it as I would like to have. The youngest is displaying some behavior that we need to put a stop to and he does not seem to be responding to the punishment that his brother did in the past. It looks like we are going to have to get more creative in the way we communicate to him the gravity of the offense by depriving him of something valuable. Obviously pain is a gift from God to help preserve us from hurt and we need to make the "pain" (not physical pain) that comes as a result of the offense great enough that it makes him stop and say, "Well, that wasn't worth it."

But this is the stuff I hate, and my wife does too. But, us hating it doesn't mean that we ignore it. The tears that are a result of the punishment will not diminish him. They will build him up and help him realize that there are real-world consequences to all of his actions. Both the good and bad will bring with it either death or life.