he threw a rock

I remember listening to a friend relate a story about one of his children back before Sam and I had kids. They had been sitting down to a family dinner with extended family and his youngest son, who had been around three or four at the time, announced that he was going to burn his house down. And I remember being horrified and thinking that he must be some kind of delinquent waiting to happen and just sure that he was going to end up in jail before the age of 18. And then I had kids and I realized how off-base my reaction was.
Truett threw a rock at my face today. It was bound to happen. He has a habit of throwing things when he is angry and I've just been lucky so far that they have been relatively soft things. It is a habit that I'm trying to break him of and I have, obviously, been unsuccessful so far.
He was angry because I asked him to turn off the water and stop washing his rocks off. He didn't agree with that and had a tantrum. When I picked up the two rocks that were on the counter, he threw the one that he was holding at me. It caught me in the chin and stung like the dickens. And the emotions that ran over me were, frankly, overwhelming. Anger, frustration, hurt, despair, disbelief, resignation. I didn't know which one to go with so I did the only thing that I could do in that moment. I picked him up and took him over to his chair and sat him down. I told him that I didn't want to speak to him and that he needed to sit there until I came to get him and then I walked out. I bit my tongue and I held in my tears. Oh the things I wanted to say to my little dragon!
 Once I had calmed down, I sat down with him and talked with him about what it would feel like if someone threw a rock at him and it hit him. He said that it would hurt. I then asked him how he thought it felt to me when he did that and he again responded that it hurt me.
And there will be people who read this post and think that he is an awful child who will grow up to be violent and aggressive and mean. In reality, he is a three-year old who has issues with impulse control. Was it okay for him to throw a rock at me? Absolutely not! But it doesn't mean that he is an awful child. He made a poor choice and we corrected it. If the behavior reoccurs, the punishment will need to be at a more intense level than a time-out and a conversation. I can't exactly allow my kid to go around throwing rocks at people. My hope though is that he will soon be capable of thinking through his actions and realizing that he should treat people the way he wants to be treated. And until that happens, my role is to guide him and correct him and help to set his feet on the right path. I'm not the perfect guide. I make bad choices too. But my heart is turned towards God and Truett belongs to Him so I'm confident that it will all come out alright in the end. For now, I'll work on my dodging abilities.

photo by: Tim Jagenberg  http://www.flickr.com/photos/timjagenberg/6600327771/