I've got a link on the side here to Heather Armstrong's blog, much of which describes life with her daughter Leta, now 27 months old and pictured to the right. On Monday's post, she talked about trying to teach Leta to say please... and when she does they would respond with "that's right." Leta quickly added "that's right" to any "please" followed by "huh?" which evidently is a common punctuation in their house. Here's a link to an audio clip of Leta asking nicely.
That little mp3 is wonderfully cute but underscores a pretty serious truth... much of the formation of our children happens as a result of what they see us doing. If we are violent or dismissive of others, they will be. If we model thankfulness, they will find things to be thankful for. If we show love and concern, they will learn caring and compassion. If we want our children to grow up with faith, they need to see us living our faith each and every day.
I know it isn't always that simple. Children have their own minds and do choose, must choose, their own paths but we as parents and as the wider community have a great deal to do with the foundation they have and with the choices they will choose between.
2 comments:
Wow, so true. My kids are 8,5 and 3. They do what I do, not what I say sometimes. This is both encouraging AND terrifying. Given this tendency, I truly hope my faith is what I do, not just something I say. That way, they will be followers of Jesus in addition to being insanely neurotic.
On a darker side:
In the news (yesterday?) there was something about 1st and 2nd grade boys suspended for assaulting a little girl. Sexually. They have no sexual drives, yet they did a sexual assault? That's learned behavior.
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