God perfectly balances the tasks of loving His children unconditionally and teaching them the consequences of sin. During this part of our Creative Corrections study, I loved how Lisa argues,
“Many of today’s ‘experts’ argue that discipline is controlling & it prevents kids from fully expressing themselves as individuals. To that I say, ‘Hallelujah!’ -I’ve seen my child fully expressing himself, & it’s NOT a pretty sight!”
When Lisa suggested that TRUST is the heart of obedience, I had a huge epiphany. Looking back at our most difficult times when we were struggling with Taylor, I suddenly realized the disobedience was lacking because there was no trust. Taylor had experienced a sense of abandonment from her mom when she came to live with us & none of us realized it. Regardless of the fact that she was in a more stable environment, she still lost a sense of trust somewhere along the way. Circumstances following her move with us definitely contributed to the lack of trust as well. We had to slowly build our trust with Taylor & convince her that we loved her unconditionally. She had to trust us that when we required her to do something or set boundaries she didn’t understand & she disobeyed them we were disciplining her out of love. Instantly, the song, “Trust & Obey” comes to mind. <3
It was very difficult for me to realize that love doesn’t mean never making our children unhappy. I had this false idea that my child’s happiness was dependent upon my parenting. When she was unhappy, I felt like I was failing. In reality, sometimes when our children are unhappy it merely because we are doing what is best for them – even when that requires unpleasant consequences.
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