…to ask where you are going, with whom, and what time you would be home.
…to insist that you save your money and buy a bike for yourself, even though we could afford to buy one for you.
…to be silent and let you discover that your new best friend was a creep.
…to make you take a Milky Way back (with a bite out of it) and tell the clerk, “I stole this yesterday and want to pay for it.”
…to stand over you for two hours while you cleaned your room, a job that would have taken me fifteen minutes.
…to let you see anger, disappointment, and tears in my eyes. Children must learn that their parents aren’t perfect.
…to let you assume the responsibility for your actions even when the penalties were so harsh they almost broke my heart.
…to say “NO” when I knew you would resent me for it. Those were the most difficult battles of all. I’m glad I won them, because in the end, you won, too.
“Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him…The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame” (Prov. 22:15; 29:15).
