Choice of Choice - and it better be good.

My stomach hurts. I hate moments like this.

I've had to be super hard on my boy these last few days. He's picking up some realllllllly bad habits at school. Some nasty talk and just simple rudeness that we have never allowed in our 4 walls. Sassy talk, back talk and snotty behavior.

Today, after punishing through time out, spanking, and then finally removing the possession of his bike, I sat down to have a little life lesson chat with him.

In front of him, I laid out 2 randomly chosen books and said "Joey..... here are 2 books. Which one would you like to read?"

"This one," he replied.

"Joey," I said, "you just made a choice. You chose this book to read, instead of this other one. Do you understand what 'making a choice' means?"

He nodded.

"Ok, good, Joey. Now....do you know there are good choices, and bad choices? Good choices are happy choices, that make you smile and laugh and love. When you make good choices, good things happen. When you make bad choices, bad things happen. Bad choices make you sad, cry and hate. Those bad choices hurt you."

He was listening intently. I went on....

"What kind of choices do you want to make? Good or bad?"

"Good," he said.

"Good. To speak sweetly and politely and say 'good' words is making a good choice. To be sassy and mean and not respectfully is to make a bad choice. I hope you decide to make good choices and speak sweetly to Ms Jackie, to me and to daddy and your friends. If you make a bad choice and speak sassy to us, bad things will happen. Jesus wants you to make good choices, not bad. He asks us to be sweet to each other."

He got the point. But it was a difficult talk - not without a lot of heartache on the front end. But if he doesn't grasp this concept NOW, it could mean a world of hurt later.

The adventures of being a mom......

xo