|
By Barry Buzza
 Sometimes we parents wonder if what we are saying to our kids carries any weight. Is it really getting through? Is anybody listening?
I didn't realize how much I was like my dad until I was in my thirties and forties. I guess it was because he was in his thirties and forties when I was being schooled by him. But there I was, saying the same things to my kids in the same tone of voice that he'd spoken to me twenty-five years before. I began to see it -- I'd become what my dad had taught me to become.
Last week I was reflecting on this powerful force of parental training and modeling, and began to list some of the oft repeated statements my dad had made. He probably thought his words were falling on deaf ears, but most of them were actually getting through. Here are about 20 of these life lessons my dad taught me.
- Always leave a room (or a desk top) cleaner when you leave it than when you entered it (that often means picking up just one out-of-place article).
- If you are going to do a job, do it well.
- Always take something up the stairs when you go (books to your room, toilet paper to the bathroom, clean clothes from the laundry).
- Always bring something down when you come down the stairs (dirty laundry, cup or glass by your bed etc.).
- Always leave the toilet paper roll full (if you use the last piece, change the roll).
- Don't buy something you can't pay for now.
Continue article >>
|
- Never walk by a piece of garbage (paper wrapping) without picking it up (at home, work, school, church).
- Appreciate everything God created (from bugs to leaves to mountain ranges).
- Never stand with your hands in your pockets.
- If you can't think of something positive or encouraging to say, don't speak.
- Always leave your room clean.
- Treat women like they are princesses and your wife like a queen.
- keep your shoulders back and stomach in (dad was ex-RCAF)
- Never walk up the stairs -- run. The exercise is good for you.
- Take second place. Always open the door for the person behind you to go first.
- Everything is a race.
- Using foul language is a sign of ignorance.
- Don't judge others for their moods. Maybe their cat just died.
- Always do a little more than you are asked.
- Always say "thank-you" and "please" with sincerity.
I'm sure there are a lot more things that my brothers and sisters could remember, but the fact that I remember and try to do most of these 20 should encourage all of us to keep on teaching our kids even when it seems that no one is listening. But the most important part of dad's discipline of his kids was in the fact that he lived what he expected us to do. Remember that "more is caught than taught."
Barry Buzza, a regular contributor to canadianchristianity.com, is a veteran pastor, and also the president of the The Foursquare Gospel Church of Canada. www.barrybuzza.com www.foursquare.ca
February 20/2008
|
