What Do You Really Want?

Taking toys away, or using other forms of manipulation (“discipline”) as a means of convincing your child to change their behavior, doesn’t solve anything.

It may seem to affect their behavior and help you feel better in the short term.

But it denies your potential to feel good regardless of how your child acts while demonstrating to your child that controlling and manipulating people’s behavior is the best way to get what they want.

Did you know that trying to convince children and other people to act differently is only a conditioned habit intended to make you feel better temporarily, but that same habit actually leads you deeper into despair?

I get that you may want to press upon your child the “realities” of the adult world, but that’s not the purpose for which your child shows up in your experience. Their purpose is to help you undo the adult-world thinking that's actually making you unhappy, not to become a slave to that kind of thinking themselves.

In fact, your child shares the same purpose with you, and you were aware of your purpose as a child, but your early experiences may have caused you to deny yourself and become obedient to worldly wisdom instead.

The question to consider is “What do you really want?”. Would you rather have miracles or masquerades? Heaven or the dream of death? Your answer to these questions is evident in the way you react to your perceptions of bad behavior.

Don't worry about what you will do about your child’s behavior. All actions (yours and theirs) occur automatically and they are perfectly organized to bring about exactly the lessons you need to learn in order to restore your mind to sanity.

Through your willingness to be aware of what motivates your reactions, you will become so disciplined in the art of true forgiveness that the thought of imposing discipline on your child or anyone else will cease to have any effects on your behavior.