"...do not exasperate your children..."

"Fathers, do not exasperate your children, that they may not lose heart." Colossians 3:21

I don't know about you, but I feel pretty darn exasperated myself a lot of the time. Why not exasperate them? They deserve to be right? Actually, scripture says no. So, today I am pondering this little verse. Just a moment ago, I was spanking my two year old. I had declared it quiet time and laid him down for his nap. He decided to get up. After explaining what I wanted him to do and explaining the consequence for not obeying, I slipped away. Not two seconds later, he was back out of bed. So, he got a spanking. This happened multiple times before he finally decided to go to sleep. Before this happened, my eight year old got a spanking. Now this one bothered me. I had told her to stop and activity for quiet time and go to her room. This was not unreasonable. We do this every day. This time, however, she asked if she could not go to her room and keep doing the activity. I said no. This resulted in a huge outburst of crying and screaming disrespectful things at me. My hurt feelings were not the issue. I have tougher skin than that. Disrespecting her mother was the issue, which in our house, gets a spanking. After the spanking, she ran away from my in an absolute rage. I am writing this as I let her calm down. We will of course have a talk in a moment to work everything out. My point, is how do I discipline these strong personalities without exasperating them? I am sinning by doing this, so there must be a way. So, today I ponder exasperation and godly training.

exasperate - to irritate or provoke to a high degree; annoy extremely

My eight year old lives in a state of exasperation with me. What is a mom to do? How does one say "no" in a way in which their children do not become extremely annoyed? Turning to God's word is all I know to do. I pray for the Holy Spirit to train me and grow me to be more like Jesus. Speak to me, Lord, teach me Your ways.