Tongue Spankings..

Earlier tonight I had to discipline HJ for lying to me. Andrea and I have been working on this for a while. We keep threatening to "spank" her tongue when she gives us a bad attitude or in this case lies to us. Well, tonight, I caught her trying to blame her brother for something that only HJ could have done. LAJ, our ds, was right beside her, but not tall enough to spill the butter and frozen corn on the floor. I wasn't mad at her, but made her tell me what happened. Then she tried to blame it on LAJ before I made her stand in the corner. Then she said it was an accident. Saying it was an "accident" is her favorite way of getting out of trouble. Well, tonight I had enough of it, so while she was standing in the corner, I put some Frank's on a spoon and went in to talk to her. At first I was going to have her close her eyes and open her mouth. She looked and saw it coming. She knew right away what it was. I told her that there are consequences for lying. I also explained how much God hates lying and how it hurts mommy and daddy, not to mention anyone else caught up in the lie. So she tried keeping her hands in front of her mouth and didn't want to taste it. Needless to say, she got more than she wanted to on her tongue after being "spanked" with the hot sauce. Afterwards, we had a long talk and a good hug. It amazes me how much children will try to do whatever they can to get away from punishment. It also makes me question my own spiritual life in understanding how God must hate to discipline us when we sin with our tongue. James had a lot to say about controlling our tongues. I hope that HJ learned a valuable lesson in keeping her tongue from lying tonight as well.