Do you always choose the best?
My dog, who always has fresh water and plenty of food still attempts to drink water out of the toilet and food from the trash. Why is that?
My children who have been offered security, a home, food, drink, clothes sometimes choose less than the best.
I, offered salvation, protection, guidance, sometimes go my own way.
When one of my daughters was 3 years old, she had pneumonia. She had a high fever and was lethargic. She was admitted to the hospital where she was well cared for by doctors and nurses. The respiratory therapist came in and pounded on her back. She screamed. She fought it. She resisted. But, the point of the therapy was to break up the mucous in her lungs as part of the healing process.
When a 2-year-old resists sitting in his or her car seat, some parents give up. Others continue the training process buckling them in and explaining to them that this is for their protection.
Pea Ridge schools are adopting Leader in Me training to help youngsters develop leadership skills.
Parents should consider whether they have adopted these skills, character qualities.
Parents, too, can learn the essential character qualities that help make good citizens and will foster good relationships in homes, in work, in schools, in communities.
We are each valuable. We have great potential. We must use self-discipline, self-denial, delayed gratification to reach our fullest potential. A parent cannot teach or train well what they do not possess themselves.
Parents, consider whether you are self-indulgent or always seek the path of least resistance. Then, so too, will your child, even if that means following the wrong crowd down a very self-destructive path.
Advertising campaigns bought into, fed and profited from the very self-centered ideology of the '60s and '70s -- "Have it your way," "You deserve a break today." But, if, as a parent, I always did what felt best to me, my children wouldn't have survived.
It hurts to give birth!
It hurts to begin the nursing process, to continue it, to deny yourself food that causes your baby an upset stomach.
It is hard to get up in the middle of the night, numerous times, to care for a crying baby.
It is very difficult to tend to an infant's needs when you yourself are ill.
But, practicing self-denial, doing what is best for that baby, brings great joy and satisfaction in the long run. The same self-discipline that makes you get up in the night to care for a hungry baby is the same character quality that will help you say "no" to the 2-year-old's demands for a cookie instead of a healthy lunch, or the 15-year-old's protestations to your declining their request to go to a party where alcohol is served.
It hurts to face your teen's wrath when they're denied a request that they think is essential but you, as the adult, realize is harmful.
As parents, we need to make wise choices and help our children by model and precept.
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Editor's note: Annette Beard is the managing editor of The Times of Northeast Benton County, chosen the best small weekly newspaper in Arkansas for five of the past six years. She has nine children, four sons-in-law, seven grandsons and two granddaughters. She can be reached at [email protected].
Editorial on 09/09/2015