Sue Bower
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
Parents - What do you wish for your child? Beauty? Health? Intelligence? Riches? Kindness? Wisdom? Success? Good athletic ability? Love? A wonderful family? Friends? A vocation that one loves and that will last? Love of father and mother? A desire to do good? Interests in everything? To be self-sufficient? To have realistic expectations? To have everything you didn't have? If the attributes were put in order, what would come first?
Things do not make you happy.
I had love in my family, Sunday meals together, enthusiastic playing where winning wasn't everything, learning more from losing than winning. Is your family a family or a group of isolated individuals torn between computers, iPhones, and sports and individual activities?
I was taught to do my best - if something was worth doing, it was worth doing well.
I had chores to do. It may take longer, but instilling responsibility and teaching the right way to attack a task will make your child a strong, incentivized and responsible adult.
No one owes you anything; you get what you earn. I appreciated and took better care of what I earned.
We cannot learn humanity from a TV/iPhone/movies. Our egos and human desires are appealed to via these media: desire for love, success, power, ambition, winning. What do we see in these blockbuster forums? Violence? Lust? Fighting? Using others? Domination? Crime? Desire to achieve fame/notoriety? Bad language?
I learned faith from my family.faith in God and faith in others. Your word is as good as your bond. Do today's businesses and friends fulfill your faith in them?
I learned who I am from my familynever lie even if the truth hurts, finish tasks, do my best all the time, have high expectations, forgive, apologize and mean it, give second chances but know when to stop, have the desire to trust but the wisdom to doubt.
Your child learns from what he sees you do. Can he learn to love if you hate? To forgive if you desire revenge? To succeed if you are lazy? To be a leader of men when you tear down leaders? To bring peace when you mouth hatred and disrespect? When you cheat at small things, you will cheat at big things. When you learn to fib, you will lie. Please, be the parent you want your child to emulate.