No More Excuses - Teaching Tuesdays

(Day 2 continuation on Faithful Follow Through)

Step 2 to Faithful Follow Through: No more Making Excuses.

       There is a reason why my children obey my husband right away, and obey me sporadically. They know he means what he says when he asks them to do one task, and he will stand there and respond to their immediate obedience or disobedience with praise or punishment - no excuses. I on the other hand am always making excuses for everything - their behavior and my lack of discipline. "They would have obeyed right away if they weren't so hungry, tired, etc." "It is okay that I ate three brownies, because I am going to exercise tomorrow." "Well, I know that I told the kids they couldn't watch anymore TV if there room wasn't clean, but then my mom dropped by and needed to talk about something important, and I needed to distract them with something just for a few moments." The problem with this logic, is there is alway some kind of "extenuating circumstance" in all of life. Do I really want to teach my kids to make excuses for themselves or their misbehavior?
         When we make excuses, our commands become empty threats, and we teach our kids that mom does not really mean what she says. Instead, I should be focusing on reinforcing first time obedience. Don't miss tomorrows wise words about first-time obedience from one of my favorite authors.