I have been so frustrated with my two-year old’s behavior the last few days. It seems we are always in a cycle of good behavior and bad behavior. Everybody will be doing so well; then it all falls apart. Our little Maggie has been throwing horrible tantrums all day long every day, and it is so frustrating!

I was reading in the book of Esther this morning. There is an interesting verse that caught my attention.

Esther 2:20b …”for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him.”

Esther’s parents died when she was young, and she was taken in by her Uncle Mordecai. Esther learned to obey when she was young, so she was ready to listen and follow Mordecai’s instructions when the stakes were much higher. This verse challenged me. I need to train my children now, so that I can speak into their lives and they will listen when they are older and the stakes are much greater. When they start dating, when they are introduced to drugs and alcohol for the first time, etc.

I also read Proverbs 29 today. This chapter contains one of my favorite parenting verses.

Proverbs 29:17 “Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.”

If I spend the time and energy now to correct my children (in this case- Maggie), she will give me rest. I will be able to get past these years of discipline and not have to correct her all the time. However, if I don’t put in the time now, I will still be just as frustrated and correcting constantly down the road. We have seen this firsthand with our six-year-old Malachi. We spent a lot of time correcting him in his early years; now we don’t have to as much. Now, he is by no means perfect, and he still gets into trouble; but the times that we have to correct him are a lot fewer now.

I am encouraged to spend the time now correcting my young children, and spare the frustration later on.