Quoting Scripture to Your Mother

I learned a new discipline plan from a friend of mine: If you disrespect our home or someone in it, then you may bless our home in the way your mother chooses.

I count in five-minute increments.
“Oh, buddy. Bummer. Five minutes.”
(Insert argument.)
“Make that ten.”
(Louder rebuttal.)
“Fifteen.”

And on it goes. One of my children quickly accumulated 45 minutes this morning. Well, how about that. They add up quickly.

The blessing I choose is for him to scrub my floors, which I think is good on multiple levels. I hear it’s good to be consistent with consequences, and I feel fairly confident we will always have a floor.

So bring out the rubber gloves, soapy water, and the throw-up bucket, which happens to be multipurpose. As a bonus, if he needs to throw up while he’s cleaning, he’ll be all set.

He quoted Scripture to me.

“Mommy, there’s a verse that says do what you say you’re going to do. And I say no, I’m not doing this.”

“Well, there’s also a verse that says obey your mom and honor her.”

“I don’t like that one. I’m only obeying one verse of the Bible today.”

“Not an option, kiddo. Get scrubbing.”

My floors are going to love all this attention.  They sure don’t get it from me.