Kahlil Gibran - Children

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."
And he said:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

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How to Stay Young with your Children

1. Throw out non-essential numbers. This includes age, weight and
height. Let the doctor worry about them. That is why you pay
him/her.

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts,
gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. " An idle mind is the
devil's workshop." And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only
person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves.
Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets,
keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your
refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable,
improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take, or send others on, guilt trips.
Take a trip to the mall, to the next county, to a foreign country,
but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every
opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the
moments that take our breath away.

- George Carlin

Parent are Leaders

"We need parents who are PURE leaders. "

"These are some characteristics I have found in pure leaders. "

"Pure leaders are:

1. Humble - they know they cannot lead all on their own, they rely on many others
2. Fiercely devoted to a righteous cause - they know what they care about more than their life itself
3. Have faith in God - they know God knows who they are, where they are and what they need to do
4. Have integrity - they tell the truth, they will do the right thing, their motives are pure
5. Willing to work - they do not ask others to do anything they are not willing to do
6. Optimistic - about the future and about the people they lead
7. Believe in people - they know that "all this" is about people
8. Have vision - they have a remarkable respect for the past, they ask "how can we make things better in the future?"
9. Set an example worth following - they know they are being watched and are unafraid of what others will see about them
10. Have the courage to stand alone (if/when they ever have to) - they know the fate of unborn millions depends on their conduct as a part of the army of God "

"Our children need pure leaders...
It takes the elect to gather the elect...
At all costs be the leader you have been prepared for eons to be - a leader in the Last Days."

- Sheri Dew "Leadership in the Last Days" 13th October 2005 http://www.byutv.org/

Give Your Children PIE

Give your children plenty of PIE.

P - Praise (Genuine)
I - Instruction (Appropriate)
E - Encouragement (Warm and Faithful)

- Ed Pinegar

Addiction Recovery

"I define the recovery from addiction as the process of awakening to love. This is the same way that I would define any spiritual journey. Opening the heart to love is the highest human experience, and is what undoing addiction is about...
How would my awareness of myself and the world change this instant if I simply put all my energy into welcoming love into my life?"
Lee Jampolsky "Healing the Addictive Mind" p4

Children Are Not Small Adults

"But children are not small adults. Children, I think, need to feel safe long before they need to feel smart; children need to be carpet-bombed with affection long before they are big and strong enough to stand on their own two feet; children need parental boundaries firmly in place before those boundaries are removed; children need to be cleverly shielded from learning the harsher adult lessons, at least until such time as they can make sense of them. Children ultimately, ideally, need to be able to grow up and become adults who choose to do the leaving, rather than have their parents leave them, either physically or psychologically, while they are still children. Because if this happens they often keep searching desparately for 'love', when all they are really looking for is some place they can feel safe."
Kathryn Flett "The Heart-Shaped Bullet - A True Story" p220

The Art of Friendship

Help your children learn "The Art of Friendship"
Learn along with them if you were not able to learn this when you were a child!

Friendships are important in our lives.
Friends may be like us or dissimilar and may be good and valuable friends for many reasons.

Discuss these friendship qualities together:

I am a good and worthwhile friend.
I can keep promises.
I do not criticise friends behind their back.
I return things I borrow.
I lend willingly to my friends.
I stand up for a friend who is being criticised.
I say "Thank You" when a friend is helpful.
I apologise when I let down or inconvenience a friend.
I listen to my friend's troubles.
I do some meaningful things for my friend.
I can keep my friend's confidences.
My conversation is thoughtful and considerate.
I can, and sometimes do, take the iniative in greeting people.
I think in advance of things to say.
I volunteer information about what I have been doing, thinking, feeling, watching or reading.
I can, and sometimes do, express my differering opinion.
I ask other people questions/for their opinion.
I listen thoughtfully to their responses without interrupting.
I draw shy people into the conversation.
I say aloud when I agree with what someone has said.
I say what part of the expressed sentiment I agree with even if I disagree with other parts of what they have said.
I can, and do, tease and joke in an appropriate friendly way.