I just read a bog in Paying It Forward and it was written by a young mom named Lindsay. She posted about coming home from work and doing simple things with her kids, just down to earth basic things, but quality time in the highest sense of the word. There is no doubt in my mind that Lindsay's children, when they are finished dragging chickens will grow up to be parents that share simple quality time with their children. You con't imagine the visual I had with that, I come from the South Bronx and live and work on Long Island, I don't knew when I even saw a live chicken, never mind a small child dragging one.
Back to my original thought, we can tell our children all about kindness and reaching out to fellow human beings. We can stress about how important charity and supporting one another is until the chickens come home but they need to see it in action. They need to see us speak to others with respect, especially people who don't necessarily get the respect they deserve. If you go out to dinner with me and you are nice to me, but not nice to the waitress, then we can't go out to dinner anymore. In the summer when it is sooo hot, they need to see you bring cold water out to the garbage man. They need to see you say thank you to the check out clerk in the supermarket, no matter how rushed you are or how slow they are.
If we hope to leave a generation of decent human beings behind and I mean really what else are we leaving than we need to teach by example.
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