The heart behind parenting

This quote from Jim and Lynne Jackson struck me as a pivotal concept in how we train and discipline our children:

"It is often said that consistency is an important key to effective parenting. We agree wholeheartedly.

"However, we believe consistency is not so much about the method we choose, but the heart behind the method. If our heart is consistently operating from an abundance of God’s grace and truth in our lives, we can effectively use any variety of methods for dealing with our children’s misbehavior. But if our heart is filled with frustration, fear, or anger, no method for dealing with misbehavior is likely to be effective."