Gentle Wallop

This is a story about my son.

I am truly blessed and thankful that God gave him to me.

But he's a rascal sometimes, and that's a fact.

We were in Calgary this past weekend staying with friends of ours and attending special church services. We had a grand time and it became apparent during the last service Sunday night that my son was having a grand time as well.

It started when I leaned over to whisper in his ear to strongly suggest that he change his behaviour (although if the truth be told, I cannot remember exactly what the particular infraction was at that time). He anticipated this move of mine and decided to cover his ears so I could not whisper anything to him at all. When I attempted to remove his hands, he decided it was time to SMACK MY FACE.

I was shocked. This is not a regular practice of his, and because of this it stunned me momentarily. I know there are any number of things I should have done, but because he has not done this before and I was still in shock, all that I did was let him know that he was NEVER, under any circumstances, to smack my face again.

Within a short time, I had to turn around to again whisper in his ear asking him to stop his misbehaviour. Again, he covered his ears. Again, I removed his hands from his ears. And, again.....you guessed it. He smacked my face. Not hard, but definitely in defiance. I told him that when we got back to our friends that he better say his prayers was getting a spanking. Now please folks, don't send me your "do not spank" comments because I will always believe that there are times when it is necessary, like when your children are defying you. I believe this because although the Lord will deal with us gently way more often than not, we do get the occasional "spanking" from Him as well when we're being brats. That's a fact.

Church ended on a very high note, and although I did not forget about my promise to spank my son, neither was I mad about the incident either. Apparently it was weighing heavily on my son's mind though, as I soon found out on our way back to our friends' house.

"Mom, would you please not spank me and give me a second chance?" he asked.

"I did give you a second chance, Seth," I replied.

"But mom, would you please give me a second chance?" he asked again. I guess he must have meant a second second chance. His dad spoke up then and reiterated what I had already said.

"But mom, if you spank me, I might be mad," he warned me. Since I was not moved, he tried a different tactic.

"Mom, will you please spank me gently?" he asked.

"Well," I said, "that depends. If you willingly come to me and I don't have to fight you, maybe I will," I replied. As you can imagine, five-year-olds can be pretty tough and I have had a hard time turning his wiry little body around at times so I can spank his bottom.

He brooded about this for a while, and then informed me that he would "cooperate".

By this time, his dad and I were highly amused. Any parent with any sense of humour at all would have been. I took no pleasure in the thought of spanking my son, but firmly believe that it was necessary for this type of nasty, defiant behaviour, and if it was necessary then it was better that it was without rancor from both parties.

We all went quietly downstairs. I sat down on the bed and waited to see what would happen. To my surprise, my son came up to me and very willingly leaned over and stuck out his derriere to receive his just recompense. He was so compliant, in fact, that I almost could not spank him. But, just as I said I would, I quite gently spanked him twice on his bum. He looked up at me, surprised, and said,

"That didn't hurt at all." His dad and I could not look at each other for a while. Then we tried to use his obedience to teach him a lesson.

As much as I don't like spanking my son, it does seem to have more effect than any other method I have found so far, and I have tried many things. When the evening ends good and your son loves you and you feel blessed of God for this wonderful lad He's given you, then I believe it's worked like it was meant to work.

Just like the times when I've hated God's "spanking" - I am His child after all - but eventually realized how much I deserved it and loved God even more as a result.

And just as my Seffie loves me.