Instead of reacting immediately — and usually harshly — when your child does something wrong, ask yourself one question: “Why is this happening?”
Why is my child throwing a fit?
Why is this child hitting their sibling?
Why is my child shy and won’t go into the nursery at church?
Why is my child giving me one-word answers?
Sometimes it is simply misbehavior that needs to be disciplined.
Asking why doesn’t take away our ability to train our child in the way they should go.
It simply gives us more information to train more effectively.
But sometimes as you ask the why, you will find that it is not a correction issue, but a grace issue.
This happens a lot when the behavior is not characteristic of the child.
Maybe they just got overwhelmed and made that bad grade on the test, and maybe what they need is for you to tell them, “It’s OK! We’ll get them next time and I will help you prepare. And remember, it's fourth grade. This is not going to keep you from getting into college 😎.”
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