Discipline---he's getting it.

Tonight was a really strange but amazing experience with my 5yo. He's been ignoring my directions/being really disobedient of late, but I've sensed the Lord showing me how handle it. A few things come to mind already about how I've changed.

1. I am learning that I need to express my dissatisfaction/unhappiness about misbehavior to my son in a clear, concise way. Telling him exactly what he is doing and how it is affecting me is step one. Dealing with the misbehavior and moving on is step two. I find that I'm not getting angrier and angrier because I'm dealing with each battle one at a time rather than doing full on war over everything.
2. Sometimes delaying the response to misbehavior works in my advantage. An example would be that I had told him to do something, it wasn't done. I said nothing to him about it but waited until he wanted/needed something from me, then I used that opportunity to get his attention by not giving in to his desire and stated that I didn't have to fulfill what he was asking for because I was unhappy with his behavior.
3. I began to realize tonight that it is my responsibility to teach my son right from wrong and that sometimes I had to do things I didn't like in order to get his attention and steer him away from the wrong path.

So tonight, I had given my son an instruction and he stuck his tongue out at me. I remained calm but knew that I couldn't let this pass. It was direct defiance of my authority. He asked me if he were going to get a spanking, and I told him yes, that he would be getting a spanking because he had completely disrespected me which was patently unacceptable. After the spanking, I asked him if he had anything to say for himself, and he said that he was sorry for acting that way. I hugged him and held him close to me. I told him that I loved him and that it was my job and his dad's job to help him learn right from wrong and to help him learn to live in a way that would bring glory to God. I told him that the way he acted didn't bring glory to God nor did it make him happy. After all this was finished, he said that he knew his mommy loved him but that she didn't love the way he'd acted. I was so grateful to hear him say that. No discipline is pleasant at the time but in the end yields a harvest of righteousness. Thank you, Jesus.