Weekend Kindness
Reaching Others Through Kindness

Want to build a better relationship with your children, regardless of their age?  Here are 5 things that, if you start them today, you’ll see your relationship improve:

1. Be the kind of person you want your child to become.

If you go back through my childhood memory book, you’ll find a blank at the bottom of every grade that you’re supposed to fill in with what you want to be when you grow up. If you were to look at all of those blanks you would see that they are filled with exactly what I am now– and what my father was growing up.

Your children are impacted by who you are, what you do, and how you treat others. That’s why it’s important to think about who you are through the prism of what they will become. What you do today with them can inspire them or cause them to rebel.

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Friday night found us watching Pollyanna together…the old Disney version starring Hayley Mills. Now, we all agree that dear Pollyanna wouldn’t recognize a “real problem if she tripped on it”. *smile*

Be that as it may, this is such a great movie for families. Pollyanna exemplifies the “best” in our hopeful striving to teach our children the “good~better~best” lifestyle.

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So, Saturday I sat down with my two oldest and watched 3-2-1 Penguins on Qubo (NBC).  This week’s adventure had them talking about envy– the green eyed monster, and I got to thinking. Next to selfishness, I believe that this is one of the biggest things that we have to deal with as parents when it comes to our children. He’s got it, and I want it.

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Last year I had a post commenting on Fashion’s effect on men and women that had a rather amusing comment in it:

My 8 yo walked by and saw what was on my computer screen (the plunging neckline shot?thanks a lot! ;O) ) and she commented, ?That?s a terribly immodest picture!? I gulped and half-laughed, ?Yes, immodesty is what this article?s about.? ?Good thing!? she said as she walked off!

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It’s been an interesting week.  We’ve already celebrated two birthdays (my wife’s on Friday and my oldest son’s on Wednesday) and yesterday we went to my parents to open presents.  Whew!

It was funny because, over the weekend, I actually can say that for the first time I was more interested in what my kids were getting than what I would get.  I really want to see how they react to the VTech V.Smile TV Learning System.  This will be their first television gaming system which we got because it’s educational.  But “dad” still wants to see their reaction.

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This past Sunday our church did something that we’ve done in the past except with a little twist. 

Every year we have what we call “The Carols of Christmas” which is basically a talent night where people sing specials, read poetry, read or recite scripture, and sing Christmas hymns.  The difference this year was that we actually “took the show on the road”– right down the road to the Presbyterian nursing home.

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Five years ago today I was in the hospital next to my wife as she gave birth to our first son.  It was around this time that we looked “down through time” to try to think about where he’d be at different stages.

One of the big things on the horizon was schooling– we had thought early about what kind of schooling we’d have him in, and we were anxious for him to turn five so that we could get started teaching him the joys of reading, and all the other subjects that we liked growing up.

Well, now he’s five, and with two others smaller than him, I think that’s going to be more of a challenge than we thought!

To me, though, it’s brought reality to the things that some have said about it going too fast.  It seems that it was just a little while ago we were welcoming him into the world, and now we’re welcoming him into the world of learning (ok, you’re always learning, I know that, but you know what I mean).  Next he’ll be driving and getting married– whew!