What I've Tried to Teach My Kids

Over the past week or so, I've had occasion to really think what kind of ideals and values I've been personally trying to instill in my two children. I came up with this list. I'm not claiming I've been successful, but I figured a recap might help clarify for me what messages I'm sending my kids.

• There is a God. He is not just some metaphoric Zeus or grandfather, living in a metaphoric cloud. He is not an abstract concept. He is the part in each of us that chooses to do good for others, to put others ahead of ourselves, even when we don't feel like it, even when we think they don't deserve it. He is the force within us that helps and cares for others, even when Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest instinct tells us that the strong become stronger at the expense of the weak. If there were no God, there would be no love, no charity, no compassion, no mercy.
• The strong should not dominate and take advantage of the weak, just because they can.
• Violence looks like it solves problems, but it only causes more problems.
• Deceit and cheating cheapen you in your own eyes - even if no one else knows the truth, you do.
• Courtesy to others costs little (and often nothing), but is worth the effort, and people appreciate it.
• Being considerate of others is worth doing for its own sake.
• Work is not something to be shunned, avoided, or ashamed of. Pride in achievement and self-satisfaction of accomplishment is not something that can be handed to you. They are something that you give to yourself, after working toward a goal, and either achieving that goal, or knowing that you gave your best effort toward that goal.
• No one can drive you to achieve, but if you don't drive yourself, you will not achieve. The only way to coast is downhill.
• Repeatedly telling yourself that you are miserable, or that your life is miserable, will eventually prove you right. This is not something worth being right about.
• All that is needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. -- William Blake
• If you are feeling down or depressed, do something to help someone else.
• Privileges and responsibilities go hand-in-hand: privileges imply assuming responsibilities; taking on and showing responsibility leads to privileges.
• Thinking always about what you don't have will lead to an empty and unfulfilling existence. Today's ongoing media blitz of advertising, consumerism, and celebrity worship focuses us on what we don't have. Learn to focus on what you do have (talents, skills, friends, family) and be grateful for it.

Lastly, you can't teach this without being a living example. These life messages come through loudest through your actions, not your words. Example, example, example.