Getting by or getting better, what occupies our days? Life fills up quickly with mind-numbing routine, attending to work and meals and bills and kids and homework. Days pass, and months, just getting by.
How might a child be inspired to greatness while living in such humdrum?
Practically speaking, it won't happen. Unless ...
Children will aspire to what they see in people they know and respect. A good heart is a great role-model. Encouragement and affirmation are powerful shapers. Meaningful conversations (not lectures) about real life are powerful, and they're inspired by our honest efforts to learn and to become better people.
Education begins at home; core values are established there. Schools often have difficulty supporting those values. Issues of principle and character are furiously assaulted in the social arena. (ref)(ref) It's a high-risk and difficult path to thoughtful adulthood; not everyone does well. (ref)
Teens are in the most turbulent period of identity development. As they begin making their own choices, our best offering is to be an anchor of principle and values and acceptance. Pray for them every day and for your own journey as well.
Circumstances can make it difficult for us to help our children mature; difficult, but perhaps not impossible. Rich or poor, this culture or country or some other, who we are will still have the most impact on who they become. Their vision for the future rises out of our vision for life and how earnestly we pursue it.
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Children's ethics, principles, convictions, values, conscience, character, clarity, morality, and life goals come first from ours.
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