Yesterday I was stopped in my tracks by one of our twin boys.
He ran into the room screaming and crying because one of his brothers had bitten him. Surveying his hand it was easy to see the tell-tale teeth marks. This was no small thing. I needed to act fast.

The punishment in our house for biting is always the same. It is soap in the mouth, administered immediately with no mercy. I got up to fetch the fairy liquid. But my little boy’s crying got louder as his shame-faced twin brother came into the room.

‘You are having some soap my boy!” I said.
“No mummy! Please don’t punish him,” pleaded Tom. “I forgive him. Please don’t give him soap. I love him very much and he is very, very sorry, aren’t you Benny?”
“Yes, Mummy”¦ I am,” said the now- wailing Ben, anticipating the arrival of something deeply unpleasant on his taste buds.

I looked at my two little boys hugging one another, tears running down their faces and everything in me just melted. What love there is between them (at times) is quite extraordinary to behold.

I sat them on my knee and told them both that on this occasion I would NOT punish Ben. His brother had saved him from the soap because of his pleading on his behalf. Ben and Tom skipped up the stairs happily promising each other that they would never, ever hurt each other again, ‘even if you take the spiderman outift'”¦

It was one of the most touching scenes I have witnessed as a mother and one I will never forget. There was something that smelt of Jesus in the transaction, and I, for one, could not let it pass.

My fairy liquid remained on the window ledge. Forgiveness tastes amazing doesn’t it?