So, today I would like to share about an unhealthy trend that took hold in our home. This is a trend from which we are quickly repenting.

Our daughter has progressed to buck authority in the home. Most of the ways that she does this are seemingly inconsequential. However, as stated above, it has become quite the trend. This trend started out with, “But I don’t want to take a nap.” It progressed to, “But I wanna get a toy anyway.”

These points of questioning or vocalizing her wants became outright rebellion. Instead of asking permission, she would go ahead and do something she wasn’t supposed to do, or she would mischievously misrepresent the truth. Like for instance, she would tell us she only watched one show on Netflix, when we knew for a fact that she had watched two shows.

After seeing this trend, we picked up on the fact that when she responded to authority, her obedience existed out of fear rather than out of affection. In other words, she did not love obedience. She loved staying out of trouble. Then it occurred to us, it had been some time since we talked to her about authority. We have been so focused on communicating about God’s authority over our home to our son, Asher, that we had lost the practice of communicating the same truth to our daughter.

Last night, we sat in a circle after we read our bible, and I shared with the kids about authority.

“Chloe? Asher? Who is in charge of our home?”

Chloe responded, “Jesus.”

“You’re right Chloe. Mommy and Daddy serve Jesus. This home He gave to us, and He is in charge of this home. Mommy and Daddy live to obey his commands on our lives. One of his commands has been to raise you and Asher to love the Lord. Sometimes this means that we have to do hard things that Mommy and Daddy would rather not do.”

Chloe asked, “Like discipline us?”

“Precisely. Though Mommy and Daddy would rather not discipline you, we would much more rather that you walked in obedience to God. Therefore, we must discipline you. However, we realize that we see you not being ruled by our love but by our discipline. Mommy and Daddy love you very much. We would rather your obedience come from you loving Jesus and wanting to obey Mommy and Daddy, and not from you fearing discipline from us, ” I continued, “You see, God is the authority in our home. God is the authority over all creation. In fact, you will never escape God’s authority. Everyone of us lives in submission to His authority. Now, if you wish you can rebel from that authority, but then you just fall into service of another authority, sin. Sin will then rule you. Chloe, would you rather be ruled by God or by sin?”

The answer for Chloe was a no-brainer. Even in the one day since this discussion, there is a stark difference between the Chloe of yesterday and the Chloe of today. Partly it is because I’ve started a new practice with her. When it looks like she is going to be selfish, argumentative, or whiney, I ask her this question. “Chloe, how do you want to live out obedience to God right now? Do you want to live out obedience through love or discipline?”

Her processing this question and thinking about what it means to be in submission to authority is already proving helpful for her little spiritual life.