The Gifts We Desire to Give Our Children Part III

by Deborah Rowley
Whew!! This is a long list of things that we want to give our children. Are there enough holidays between now and the day that they leave home? Parenting can be overwhelming. When ALL of this is done, when there are no more diapers to change, no more snotty noses to wipe, no more fingerprints to clean off the walls, what will I have accomplished? What will I have given to my children, I mean, besides a GAZILLION unappreciated hours of service and a huge chunk of my heart, mind, and soul.   

These last gifts have to do with the attitudes and character traits we want to model for our children. I don’t have to be perfect, but I can try to be the kind of person that I want my children to follow.   

13. The gift of service. We will give our children opportunities to serve others, in our own family and in our neighborhood so that they can learn the joy of acting unselfishly.   

14. The gift of identity. We will teach our children about their family history so that they can feel a connection to their ancestors and a strong tie to their grandparents. We will help them find positive role models to identify with.

15. The gift of optimism. We will model optimism and show our children how to look for the bright side in any situation. We will not complain or endlessly bemoan our fate in life.  

16.  The gift of goals. We will our children to set goals and give them support in fulfilling these goals so they can feel the pride of worthy accomplishment.    

17. The gift of gratitude. We will be grateful and try to express our thankfulness often. We will look for opportunities to count our blessings as a family and point out all the good things we have to our children.

18. The gift of forgiveness. We will be forgiving and patient when our children make mistakes. We will model how to forgive each other and our children so that they can learn to forgive themselves.