Honor Thy Father and Mother

To say that I've been struggling with Curt's sassy mouth lately would be an understatement.

Pretty much as soon as he could talk, he'd contradict whatever it was I said, or have a response to even those things that shouldn't be answered. But today came the straw that broke this camel's back.

And. Things. Have. To. Change.

Not just because of the constant back talk and sassing, but because I end up giving him way too much attention. Negative attention. This has to change on both of our parts.

So this morning at work, I polled the girls (and the one guy) about this problem. They're all parents, and, in fact, I have the youngest of the collective children. They gave great advice and were supportive, but something RL said really struck home.

"Tell him," she said, "That these aren't your rules, they're GOD'S RULES."

And it clicked. Hello, Ten Commandments. Moses. Mt. Sinai, etc...

Tonight, when we got home, I sat down on the floor in the cozy room, called the boys in, opened our children's Bible and read to them from Exodus.

"Honor thy father and mother..."

God's rule. Not mine. 

Pretty hard to argue with, even for Curt.

"And when you talk back, or sass, or yell or scream at me, you're not just dishonoring me, you're dishonoring GOD."

Their eyes grew to the size of saucers.

So far tonight, no back talk.

No sass.

No screaming.

We'll see...