In one of our finer parenting moments, Paul answered a phone call as the Middle Gingers antagonized one another in the backseat of the car. Crying ensued, frustrations mounted, and Paul did what dads sometimes do– he pulled the car into an empty church parking lot to instill a healthy bit of fear about what will happen next. A lot of shushing and finally he was able to finish his conversation. As he hung up the phone, we all waited quietly for the direction Paul’s parenting would take us. What he said next caught us all by surprise… “I’m over this! From here on out, if someone antagonizes you, you have my permission to unleash on him/her.” I gasped, holding back the laughter (and wondering if the kids even know what “unleash” means). The Littlest Ginger innocently leans forward in his seat and asks, “What does ‘I’m over this mean’? Because if it means you don’t love us anymore, that isn’t what God would want.” While the gingers may have missed the point on Paul’s sarcastic suggestion on ways to resolve conflict (or not), Ginger4 struggled on a different level. His commentary made us all forget the tension and realigned us with the basic truth about God and parenting– love wins.