A
conversation with parents will make a child feel significant and grown up. And
it also set the condition for how they take custody of their child's education.
They are identified as the most influential teachers. They value the teaching
their child is gaining in school, but they know there is a difference between
acquiring knowledge and developing wisdom.
Our parents
knew that an essential part of a good education required the discipline of
daily learning. But the most relevant education a child can get to their
parents is shaping. They lived what they taught every day of their lives. And
modeling is the most permanent form of teaching.
We wouldn’t
be where we are now if it weren’t for the passion, support, and teaching of our
parents.
Here are the
10 principles our parents taught us.
1. Responsibility
As
soon as we learned how to walk, parents required us to pick up our toys and put
them on their proper place. They let us know what our duties would be. Washing
dishes is an example. As the reward, we got to participate in a fun family
activity. Anyone from our siblings who didn’t do his chores had to stay home to
finish them.
It
is a good system to help children learn to make good choices and manage their
time well.
2. Work
Ethic
At
a time when numerous people couldn’t find work, our parents sometimes held down
three jobs at once. They would go to a business where they wanted to get a job
and they would meet with the owner and make him an offer.
They
worked a lot of free days but they also got jobs when they needed them. They
always said that there’s work to be had by anyone who wants it badly.
As
a child, our parents required us to do our homework before we play. We also
learned that as we got older, we were to work more and play less. So we weren’t
surprised when we were given additional duties to perform as we got older.
3. Determination
Our
parents’ determination has served us well in adulthood. It helped us keep going
when our responsibilities sometimes overwhelming.
4. Attitude
We
learned the importance of positive attitude from our parents, continue to model
positive thinking and living to us.
5. Potential
They
constantly built us up, encouraging us and instilling in us a desire to reach
our potential.
6. Relationships
They
put relationships at the top of their priorities. They modelled a good
relationship with one another and with other people around them.
7. Stewardship
Parents
taught us the promise that we were to bring the whole tithe into the storehouse
and that God would throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much
blessing that you will not have room enough for it.
We
are told that everything we had belonged to God and that our job was to
faithfully take care of what He gave us, to be good stewards.
8. Honesty
There
was always a consistency between their words and actions, and we count on them
to be honest with us about anything.
9. Generosity
Because
of our parents’ generosity, we thought we were the richest people in town. Our
parents were always giving and expecting nothing in return.
10. Dependence
on God
The
most important principle our parents taught us was dependence on God. “He will
sustain you; he will never let the righteous faill” (Palm 55:22)
When we grow
up and have our own family, know that your children need different things from
you. Just remember that your goal is to prepare them all during their lives for
the time when they will be making their own choices. That’s the real value of
education, and we are their most important teacher.
