Children Learn What They Live

Raising children is, as they say, the hardest job we'll ever love.
And, oh how we love it!
But, yes, how very difficult it can be.

When we become parents we discover that we are quite unable to be what we'd aspired to be.
Hopefully we learn that it's the picking ourselves back up again...
Yes, and again and again.
Because we can find ourselves within the relm of the good parenting that we've always admired!
Tomorrow is a new morning.  Every morning.


There's a reason for so much encouragement for parents.
We need it.
Our dear ones need it.
Our children may well become parents themselves, one day.
I, for one, drink deep from the well of encouragement.
I really need it!

The following two verses have increased in worth for me the longer I parent my five precious kiddoes.  Their truth is undeniable and my place as a parent is irreplaceable.

Be encouraged, friend!


Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds;
tie them as symbols on your hands
and bind them on your foreheads. 
Teach them to your children,
talking about them when you sit at home
and when you walk along the road,
when you lie down
and when you get up. 
Write them on the doorframes of your houses
and on your gates,

This poem was displayed in a frame in my childhood home.

I read it often over many years.
I would study the words and memorize the significance.

Laying awake at night, I would imagine this kind of home,
struck by the perfect sense and fairness.
Often I thought, "When I become a parent, this is how it will be for my children."

~Deuteronomy 11:18-20


Start children off on the way they should go,
   and even when they are old they will not turn from it.
~Proverbs 22:6


Children Learn
What They Live

If a child lives with criticism,

 they learn to condemn.

If a child lives with hostility,

 they learn to fight.

If a child lives with ridicule,

 they learn to be shy.

If a child lives with shame,

 they learn to feel guilty.

If a child lives with tolerance,

 they learn to be patient.

If a child lives with encouragement,

 they learn to be confident.

If a child lives with praise,

 they learn to appreciate.

If a child lives with fairness,

 they learn justice.

If a child lives with security,

 they learn to have faith.

If a child lives with approval,

 they learn to like theirself.

If a child lives with acceptance and friendship,

they learn to find love in the world.

~Dorothy Law Nolte