I'm an F-15

Tactical Discipline -vs- Carpet Bombing
While correcting one of my daughters yesterday, a young friend commented... "Nice Tactics, you are an F-15". I gave him a perplexed look and he said, "F-15, it's a tactical fighter." I replied, "Thanks, but I sure wish I was an F-15E, it has 2 people in the cockpit!" (I am flying solo right now with Mark deployed, but looking forward to his return at the end of July).

Every mom has felt the eyes of a crowd watching her as she attempts to discipline her toddler, the eyes of "oh I am glad that season is over for me" and eyes of "get that kid under control." Sometimes the looks are full of pity, sometimes of contempt, and rarely, sometimes of encouragement. But this young friend, just 11 years old, gave me the greatest encouragement I have had in a while.

Being an Air Force wife I began to think about my various parenting efforts in terms of air-power. Sometimes I am the F-15, a technically advanced tactical fighter, accurately assessing and targeting specific issues. But sometimes, unfortunately, I am more like the carpet bombers of previous wars - dropping a large slew of bomb over a wide swath hoping to eliminate any and all threats.

I can tell my carpet bomber days - when my girls tense a bit as I say their names, or when my 4 year old sounds the air-raid siren ("Shhh, mommy's coming) as I walk past their room. Toddlers don't need carpet bombing, they need the careful, intelligent, directly applied correction of a tactical fighter mommy.

Lord you know my daughters hearts, delicate hearts that while needing training do not need the destruction of ill-applied discipline. Lord please give me wisdom today as I walk alongside my girls. Give me supernatural radar to detect the issues even before they arise. And as I seek to correct, give me the guidance to understand the heart of the issue in order that correction may be properly given.