My Valentine

Happy Valentines Day!  For some of you this may be a great day, having an excuse to express your love to your spouse or significant other.  For others it may be a day of disappointment or sadness. 

For those who have a spouse already in heaven I wanted to share with you a comment I recently read by Beth Moore..."What comfort to know that not only did God fashion us in our mothers' wombs, but He also knows the exact moment our hearts cease to beat.  God's desire to have us with Him will finally eclipse His desire to have us on earth, and He will take us to glory." 

If Valentines Day is a day to give and receive love, I can think of no better Valentine to have than Jesus.  God has created us, chosen us, loved us, revealed Himself to us, redeemed us, forgiven us, guided us, strenghthened us, and blessed us beyond measure.  And he gives some of us spouses to love here on earth, who we all too often take for granted.  While today I hope to let my husband know just how special he is to me, I want to turn my focus for just a moment to the One who loves me, and you,  perfectly and completely.

And They Keep Growing Up...

My boys keep growing.  We will be celebrating Jacob's 8th birthday this week!  Jacob is in 2nd grade and loves sports and video games...or doing just about anything with his daddy.  It makes me proud how well he does in school, both in academics and behavior.  But at home it can be quite different...

Every new stage with Jacob is both exciting and a little bit scary since he is the oldest.  (By the time I get to Brady I feel like a pro!)  I'm learning that as a child grows up, discipline needs to change.  The puzzle is figuring out how.  A book I'm reading made a point that the goal of discipline should not be to merely control behavior, but to look deeper and shape the child's heart...the place where the behavior comes from.  I'm a little overwhelmed with that responsibility!  But I'm thankful I don't have to do it alone. 

We have used "grounding" as a punishment for a while now.  Sometimes I think it's effective, and other times I'm not sure because I keep seeing the same attitudes reappear.  Recently I heard of a new discipline technique that I'm going to test out.  The basic idea is to assign sentences.  The child is grounded until the assignment is completed, giving them control of the length of their punishment.  So if a child talks back, you could assign him "I will not talk back to my mother" 25 times....which can increase if he complains about the assignment.  But my idea is to assign Scripture that relates to the bad behavior or attitude.  As the child writes, he will be memorizing God's Word at the same time.  For example, Ephesians 4:29 which says "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." I need to do some searching and come up with a list of Scriptures that would be appropriate. 

And so I ask for input.  Have you ever tried anything like this with your children?  Do you think it would cultivate a love and respect for God's Word, or have the opposite effect?  And are there any specific Scriptures you have as suggestions?