"What would Jesus do?"

Raising a pre-teen has been a unique experience, especially since Colton is our first. He feels things are pretty unfair. For example, last night he was grounded for hurting Whitney's arm. He felt it was her fault and thus she deserved it. After hearing both sides of the story it was determined that though Whitney shouldn't have blocked him, he still had a choice and he chose to hurt her arm. Because he wasn't sorry or even felt bad that he had bruised her arm I felt I had no choice but to ground him.

He spent two hours crying, pounding in his room and finally playing "Had a Bad Day" on repeat over and over. After explaining why he was grounded I finally had to take the CD cord to end the annoying repeat of the song and started out his room. He cried back. "You want us to be like Jesus but you aren't." After stifling a chuckle I asked what he meant, to which he replied..."Jesus wouldn't have grounded me for not being sorry, he would have looked angry at me and walked away."

Ok by now I was really having to hold back uncontrollable laughter and try to help this poor boy see why he was in the wrong and why Jesus wouldn't have approved of his hurting his sister. In desperation he responded that maybe he should just run away since we obviously don't love him. He'd be better off living at the ditch (a small fort the kids in the neighborhood built near a ditch). I reminded him that he would be cold and hungry and he insisted that is friends would bring him stuff. This is really hard for me. I really don't know how to help him see how much he is truly loved and that he was being punished because we do love him and want him to be a better person. Any ideas I'd welcome them:)