Play Nice in the Sandbox: Deuteronomy 19

When my kids were in their teenage years they loved to tease, pick on and generally annoy each

other. They would take each others clothes, toys, friends, and purposefully get on each others nerves,. They would especially do this if they found life too boring and needed to get a rise out of someone for entertainment purposes. At other times I would try to let them work it out on their own, after all, I reasoned, they are almost adults; Because, we all know, adults are always reasonable.
More often than not, however, I would often have to intervene to stop them from doing real damage to each other.
The times that were the most trying for me as a parent were when they would deviously try to get each other in trouble, just for spite or to get even for, "who knows what".

They wanted to use my authority as a parent to do their dirty work

They wanted to use my authority as a parent to do their dirty work, so they would lie, manipulate or generally expound on the truth to get their revenge.
If I would have taken the advice of Deuteronomy 19, I would have asked for two witnesses to uncover the lie. Then I would have proceeded to give the punishment to the "fibber" that he had tried to impose on his brother or sister. According to Deuteronomy 19 that would have put a stop to the problem once and for all.
Deuteronomy 19 is full of practical wisdom for a new nation:

• Set up places for people to go in cases of accidental murder or offenses so they can be protected.
• Premediated murderers will not be allowed to escape to the places of refuge
• Don't move peoples property lines and try to steal property
• Make sure you have at least two witnesses in a trial, don't take the word of one person against another.
• If a witness is lying he will get the punishment of the one he tried to have convicted.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+19

Hope Wirta