The Missing Discipline Element

So, I've felt something missing from my discipline tactics for my 4 year old for a while now, but couldn't figure out what it was. I found my answer at Sunday School this last Sunday. We started our first Sunday with new curriculum. The curriculum, called Faith Weavers, teaches everyone from nursery to adult from the same Bible story and theme. Our story was David and Bathsheba and the topic was forgiveness and redemption. I'm in the parenting class where we talk about how we can teach this stuff to our kids as well as what we can learn about it ourselves. In our talking our teacher gave several examples of his disciplining his kids and it just clicked. Prayer! I've never had Ellie pray and ask Jesus to forgive her and change her heart when she does wrong. This is of course what I should be doing, but a side benefit is that Ellie has an intense desire to always be right. This should help humble her and help her be more willing to admit her mistakes. I tried it today and it seemed to be quite effective. Now I just need to stay consist ant with it, and we will hopefully see some improvement!