Discipline

Susanna has turned into Little Miss Verbal lately. She is picking up words right and left, and is enjoying her new communicative abilities and enthusiastic responses she gets from her parents... It's kind of crazy to think that in another year or so, she'll be talking in full sentences and be comprehensible most of the time! *sniffs* They grow up so fast! Of course, by the time we don't have to guess what she's trying to say anymore, we'll be playing that game with another little one! Only 7 more days till we find out whether Susanna is getting a brother or a sister!

Unfortunately, despite the fact that Susanna is so eager to utilize her expanding vocabulary, lately she has "forgotten" the word "please". She seems to be entering the "gimme" phase - pointing at various things she wants and grunting... and then throwing a temper tantrum when we ask her to say please, after which she then sticks her thumb in her mouth and sulks... repeat request for "please", repeat tantrum, repeat sulking, etc., etc., ad infinitum... I tell you, for all her calm, happy, sweet personality traits, this kid is STUBBORN! So these last few days have been ones of many disciplinary episodes... I now believe my parents' "It hurts me more than it hurts you" and "I'm doing this because I love you"! I hate having to withhold the thing she wants and I hate having to spank her, but I also hate the thought of having a wild, disobedient and very impolite child who is headed for Hell, so I have to discipline her consistently. I think we might be seeing some fruit of this week's discipline, too, because today she seemed much more compliant in the "please" department (I think we only had about 3 tantrums, which is MUCH better than Friday's something like 20!) Anyway, all this is helping me to better understand why God has to discipline us, so it's all for our good.