The thought for the day has been the old adage of leading by example. If you want kids who are respectful of their elders then show them by being respectful to your elders. If you want kids that are helpful, participate in community service projects or have family chores that are done all together (it is always amazing to me to see how helpful kids will be if they are working alongside a grownup who is doing the same chore). If you want kids that love to laugh, then have a good laugh everyday. It is really just that simple.

Today I received a huge compliment that has encouraged me to live these lessons I want to impart on my kids. There are a couple of kids in my youngest sons class who have a reputation for being a little wild and I have been concerned about my kid hanging out with them because I don’t want him to get in trouble just because he may be in the wrong place at the wrong time. So, he asked if these kids could come to our house and play and I said that would be great. When these boys arrived at our house they were very polite and talked with me and said thanks for inviting them over. I watched them play and they were all nice to each other and if I asked them to do something or explained some of the house rules they all complied without hesitation.

So, here comes the compliment part. I saw one of these boys grandmothers tonight. I told her how polite her grandson had been at our house. She said that the last time he came home from our house he told his mother that he really liked playing here because I talked to him like a human being. When his mom asked him what he meant he said “Well she just talks to me like I’m a person and she doesn’t yell at me like I get when I go to other kids homes”.

This meant alot to me. I once heard a story Zig Ziglar told about his grandaughter. She was two years old and the family kept complaining that she was wild and going through the “terrible twos”. So, everytime he saw her he would call her Sunshine and remind her about all the good things she was doing. Whenever she was around Zig she was always a beautiful well behaved two year old.

It’s not always as simple as calling a child by a positive knickname but it certainly helps. In the bible it tells us to treat others as you would want to be treated and that includes our kids.

Show them by example how to interact with each other. And when there is behavior that you want to change try to work it out calmly. If this is challenging then be sure to read my last entry “picking your battles”.

Hang in there and enjoy every minute. It really does fly by.