slow to speak

One thing that I have been working on for a while is stepping back and letting my husband take the reins in our house hold. It something that was a real struggle for me in the beginning of our marriage, but over the years it has gotten easier. One area I still struggle with though, is in disciplining our children. Bob is a very laid back guy and seems to let things fly way easier than I do when it comes to the kids. This seems to cause inconsistency in our disciplining. Today is an example. Bob called Brady to come down the stairs for some reason, and Brady was choosing not to obey. While Bob did take him to his room and discipline him right away, after he was finished he explained to Brady what he did wrong and told him next time he wanted him to listen (doing great so far!) but, right as Bob finished his sentence Brady screamed at the top of his lungs NO!! Oh, my skin boiled! That boy needed to be disciplined again for that! Bob on the other hand did nothing. He told Brady to sit there in his bed while Bob continued to hang the roller shade he was installing in Brady's window (an attempt to darken his room and hopefully keep him from waking up at 6 am every day!) While Brady fussed and cried, he did stay in his bed and Bob continued to work After a few minutes Brady calmed down and Bob once again talked to him about his obedience.
My strong instinct when Brady screamed at Bob was to run in there and and say..."he needs another spanking for that!" To tell my husband what to do and how to discipline his son. I do know how to discipline better than he does right???? Is that what I am telling my husband when I run in there and tell him what to do?? I think it might be. Ouch! I am glad that God showed me that today, and that he helped me to resist the temptation to run in and tell him what to do. Bob's handling of the situation actually seemed to work just as well and actually put less stress on Brady and allowed him to calm himself down. When Brady screamed NO at Bob he was frustrated and wanted to draw attention to himself. I think spanking him would have only drawn more attention to the situation rather than just letting it go and not giving it more attention than it deserved. Lord, please continue to be slow to speak when it comes to "assisting" my husband in disciplining our children. There is no room for Bob to step in and take the drivers seat in disciplining if I am already sitting there.