Life Lessons

Not sure why I feel compelled to write this, maybe so a record exists somewhere that I (and perhaps K-squared) can be held accountable to. When your day is filled with the immediate and the necessary, sometimes you lose sight of those all-important, long term goals. So here they are, set in stone (or in the blogosphere as it were). These are the things I want to pass on to my children. The traits that I want to indelibly mark on their delicate souls:

1) Kindness. This is by far the number one thing I hope to instill in my children as I believe its an umbrella for so many traits I want them to possess. If I can just teach them to be kind to everyone, no matter what, and that kindness is always more effective than any other tactic. This is not to say I want my children to be doormats, or that I think the solution to every problem is just to "be nice" but I do want them to show a genuine empathy and compassion toward their fellow man. In my own life experience, it is the kind people who have traveled the farthest, and been the most successful. True success comes when we can serve others and when we truly care (not just pretend) about how others are doing and what we can do to help.

2) Confidence. This is an extremely close second to kindness - I consider these first two to go hand in hand. I am hopeful to teach my children confidence in who they are and what they believe in, stand for, and want out of this life. I hope to teach them confidence in their ideas and their questions, in their convictions and their capabilities. I believe true self confidence helps ground you as a person, and keeps you from being too swayed by peer pressure when you're young, what others think as you get older, and your own self doubts as you get older still. The strength that confidence gives you is immeasurable - both to the outside world and to your internal perspectives.

3) Adventure. I hope my children will have a healthy sense of fearlessness for trying new things and exploring new opportunities. I hope that they will crave the unusual and that they will take pleasure in stepping out of their comfort zone and finding ways to stretch themselves. I hope they don't get too comfortable in the day to day and the typical. I hope they look back on their lives with very few regrets from not having tried something they wished they would have.

4)A love of the Gospel. I hope that my children will not feel that church is just one of those things they HAVE to do, but instead that they find a true personal relationship with Christ. I hope they lean on my testimony when they need to (and I hope I can provide an ongoing strong example to them for that) but I hope that soon enough they develop their own unique convictions and strength of character and that it helps to see them through many tough life choices. I hope they learn to lean on their faith, and that they grasp the greater picture of eternity, rather than just the here and now. I know how comforting it is to have faith and believe in Christ, and to lean on Him when life gets challenging and difficult. I also know firsthand how sometimes doing what is right seems difficult in the moment, but always pays off in the end. I want my children to experience this for themselves, so that they are motivated to try their hardest to do what is right and build their own personal testimonies of Christ and the gospel.

5) Always doing their very best. I am a firm believer in the old adage that if a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well. I have said all along that my children will not disappoint me if they fail, only if they fail to do the best they are capable of. Particularly when it comes to their education, I hope that they will always try hard and strive to succeed. I want to teach them how satisfying it is to give something your all - even if the outcome is not what you had wanted or expected. B talks about leaving everything out on the field - you can't regret how the game went if you gave it all you had.

6) Perspective. I think this is one of the hardest things to learn, no matter how old you are. I want to teach my children that everything is really just how you look at it. The hard things are just opportunities to grow and learn, the scary things are opportunities to be brave, and the impossible things are opportunities to discover our own capabilities. No matter what we are facing in our lives, if we can shift our perspective we can open ourselves to immeasurable possibilities.