I AM A CHILD AND I AM YOURS. It matters not if I was born or selected by you, it matters only that I am to be loved by you. Protect me, don’t smother me. Guide me, don’t push me. Correct me, but don’t criticize me too harshly. Free me but don’t abandon me. Shower me with memories that I can keep forever. Touch my hand and meet my eyes and let me know that you are there. Praise me for little things I do. They are great accomplishments in my eyes.
READ TO ME. Until I gain my knowledge you must train my blind eyes and deaf ears to look and listen. Encourage me because I believe in you with all my heart. Most of all, love me. For as much as you give it, it is that much and more that I promise to return. Please love me. It won’t cost much or take too long. It won’t make a mess or be too loud. I won’t break it but I promise to keep it forever with me. Someday I will find a person and share this priceless gift. It will never grow old or outdated but only grow more beautiful with age.

Sarah Steed, 3, fell into a cesspool and lay submerged for 10 minutes before she was pulled from the nine foot pit. Police said the child must have gotten into an air-pocket below the surface. That’s the only thing that could have saved her.
We place a great premium on physical life. Regardless of sacrifice or expense involved, we will move heaven and earth or go to any extreme to save a child. Mountains are not too high, oceans are not too wide or even a cesspool with all of its filth does not dampen or discourage ‘rescue operations’.
Whole communities turn out with the cry “We are searching for a lost kid”. This love and compassion is most admirable and the joy of seeing a lost child found is pay enough.
Why don’t we emphasize spiritual values as we do physical life? One of the great philosophers was quoted as saying, “Must you live!” Is there not more to life than breathing polluted air? Is there not a cause greater than the cry of ‘self-survival’?
Children learn what they live. You can tell and talk and say and point, but until the child applies it to life, it is just theory and adult talk. Take a simple test. How do you learn to cook? How do you learn to wash dishes, scrub floors, dust furniture? How do you make a bed, or pull up weeds, or sweep a floor? It is a simple process called “living the practice you are taught.
How foolish it is for us as parents to expect our children to learn anything when they are not given the opportunity to do it for themselves. Mother never did the dishes. There were seven of us and the mixture of boys and girls was the perfect design for the old fashion dishwasher. It was our turn and we boys did the dishes for nine in four minutes and eighteen seconds. We tip-toed out to the ball games that was in progress in the vacant field beside our house.
Mother looked up from the evening paper and said, “Are you through already?” We answered with a shy, “Yes mam”. Then she said those three words. “Let’s go see!”
She took down a plate that still had a small piece of stuck wiener to it. She held a glass up and it was still filled with the stain of dirty dish water. She pulled out a pot, and the rainbow of colors could be seen, reflected in grease in the bottom from the light of the single bulb hanging from the ceiling. Then she said, “Take all the dishes out of the cabinet. Put on clean paper (newspaper on the shelf) and take out all glasses and cups and wash them again. Do the same to the silverware and the pots and pans, and while your are at it, scrub the floor. When you are through and ready for inspection – then call me.”
You guessed it, the game was over when we finished. Mother had never lifted her voice but that was the most marvelous way to teach boys How to do dishes RIGHT!

  If a child lives with criticism – he learns to condemn.
  If a child lives with hostility – he learns to fight.
  If a child lives with fear, he learns to be apprehensive.
  If a child lives with pity – he learns to feel sorry for himself.
  If a child lives with jealousy – he learns to feel guilty.
On the other hand,
  If a child lives with encouragement, he learns to be confident.
  If a child lives with praise, he learns to be appreciative.
  If a child lives with tolerance, he will learn to be patient.
  If a child lives with acceptance, he learns to love.

The apostle Paul wrote, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking” (I Corinthians 13:4-8; NIV).
Next time you see your kids, “Look at life from a child’s point of view, and remember, “Love suffers long and never fails”.