Inch By Inch

I read this wonderful post by Sally Clarkson today: Obedience is a pathway, not a procedure! She puts it so well, better than I could, about how discipline and training our children takes time and patience. I was just mentioning today to my mom that what makes discipline so hard is that it takes repetition, repetition, repetition. Children aren't going to get it all at once. Discipline requires parents to be patient and to say the same thing over and over. Habit never comes overnight. If we want our children to get into the habit of obedience, it will take time.

One of my brother's favorite movies as a child was The Richest Cat in the World. It's a goofy movie, but one phrase from it has stuck in my head for my entire life. One of the characters says, "Inch by inch is a cinch. Yard by yard is very, very hard." The phrase refers to the fact that it if we take things slowly, inch by inch, it will be a lot easier. So, although I need a lot of patience as I teach Alexis inch by inch, it's a whole lot easier than expecting immediate obedience now.