Letting alone in child training

Henry Clay Trumbull, a very wise man, wrote a book called "Hints on Child Training".  I really like the title because he doesn't presume to know it all.  He just has some hints for me that might help.

Letting alone in child training is one such hint.  It's so right.  So scary.  So have-to-trust-God.  My fears threaten to surface when I see issues in my children.  I want to go after them and root them out.  But letting alone, letting God work, trusting Him with my babies, this is what I'm called to do.  Today I had the privilege of going to Disneyland with Juliet and Benji for Benji's 4th birthday.  Our passes expire and this is one of the last weeks we can go.  Both of them are so effusive in their thankfulness and excitement, it's such a joy to take them.  But, as all children do, they reached their "all-done" point, and it was right about the same time I reached mine.  And we still had to walk to the car.  Ben had just received a bubble-blowing gun and he was happily shooting bubbles and walking slowly but Juliet had nothing to distract her. She asked me to carry her, but she is just too big to carry for long distances.  We had only walked about 1/4 of the way back to the car and Juliet just collapsed on the ground and refused to go another step.  I got frustrated.  (it was over 90 degrees) (and I struggle with sin still...occasionally)
I came down a little hard on her.  "Juliet, I CAN'T carry you dear, you must walk.  Come on, get up."  For some reason that didn't' work.  I tried a little more forcefully, "GET UP Juliet!"  We have to go get the kids, they are waiting for us!"  Still no results, just a crumpled up 5 year old.  

Now, at this point, genius kicks in.  Or Holy Spirit.  Or 10 years of child rearing.  Whatever it was, I changed from my usual in-your-face method and went to the distraction method which I have seen many people do when they needed to deal face to face with an issue and  have eschewed it.  But today it worked so beautifully.  I asked Ben if he would be so kind as to share his new gun.  He complied, (I LOVE that kid) and she was ok to walk a bit.  I then discovered our mandarin oranges in the bag and I peeled them and fed them to her segment by segment as we walked to the car.  Without another complaint.  My goal was to train my dear little girl to be tough.  But sometimes I don't feel tough.  It sometimes feels impossible to put one foot in front of the other.  So a little orange segment to delight and distract me would be just the ticket.  Here you go...get up...here is a toy...take a few steps...GOOD JOB...here is an orange...lets keep going...here is another one...let's sing a song...we're almost there...you're so tough...here is another orange...ok...just about there...we're HERE!!! ....GREAT JOB...you are so strong girl...what a blessing you are...how amazing it is that you walked ALL THE WAY to the car!!!

Juliet accomplished what I wanted her to, and she is stronger because of it.  I am wiser, and I realize that, just like me, she needs to take her eyes off the problem and while she is delighting in something delicious...just walk.  What a gift my children are to me.  How they teach me to look to Him; to the gifts He gives me to enable me to walk.  It brings me such joy to be able to report that words of blessing and praise were what my little girl heard.  It breaks my heart to say that is not always the case.  Often I speak words of discouragement, or in a tone of disapproval I harp on little things.  A lovely flower cannot grow in that environment.

Trumbull talks about letting alone.  This today was more distraction and doesn't exactly fit with what he writes about, but the underlying issue is the same.  Give our little plants some plant food and water and then shine the sunshine of love and acceptance on them and watch them blossom.

Henry Clay Trumbull's excerpt can be found here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=WpZLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA83&lpg=PA83&dq=henry+clay+trumbull+letting+alone+in+child+training&source=bl&ots=kNylzqQw3x&sig=3BMFpkdc154Eyu1cbBMgapXWal4&hl=en&ei=893ATZXWDe_RiALasNSHAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false