Along the same thread as my conditional submission post, I've gotta put my .02 in on my new thoughts on obedience.

If we as wives, do not have to do the right thing, simply because it is right.  If we are allowed to wait until our husbands are in line with the Lord before we submit to them, I submit to you (pun intended) that our children do not have to obey us as we'd like until we show perfect obedience and deference to the Lord.

I say it is time we quit focusing on our children's short comings and work on our own.  They have a life time to recouperate from poor training... we've got only half a lifetime left to perfect ours! 

Let them rule the roost, run wild, speak with attitudes while we turn our platitudes into our attitudes.  They've got plenty of time to learn what we haven't yet.  It is downright unjust for us to require of them what we do not do perfectly ourselves.

I know... I know... it means a harder life for them later.  I know that truth doesn't change depending on the bearer's perfect living of that truth, but it's hypocritical and snobbish to require it and  whatever we do, we MUST be fair.  FAIR is the rule you know.

So next time your child tosses her shoes aside instead of putting them away, ask yourself, "Do I always put my shoes away?"  If the answer is no, then by all means, do not make them do it right.  They can master the habit somewhere around your age.  AFter all, it didn't kill you!