Eleven Things Our Daughter Taught Us

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Isn’t it strange that the older one’s children get, the more the parents learn? Just yesterday I heard an older man say, “If I had it to do over again, I’d spend more time with my kids.” This man now is spending more time with his grandchildren.

By the time our daughter turned 30, we had watched her weather a lion’s share of life’s storms. She amazed us with her ability to plod through, despite enough pressure to make most people’s knees buckle. And so, I wrote the following and tucked it in her birthday card that year. It was a reminder of the qualities that enabled her to survive so nobly and us to survive by the skin of our teeth.

Eleven Things You Taught Us

1. Life goes a lot better with a healthy dose of laughter.

2. The human spirit is a lot more resilient than we ever thought possible.

3. Small choices reap humongous consequences.

4. There is no such thing as a “harmless” choice.

5. Reading aloud to kids pays off.

6. Who needs shoes?

7. Determination is the asphalt on the road of life.

8. Grown-up kids eventually learn to make their beds.

9. Diligence in child training is necessary, even when you are perpetually exhausted.

10. Life is a great adventure; hang on for a roller-coaster ride, a bungie jump and three leaps from a helicopter.

11. God loves us unconditionally, but He still expects us to play by His rules. (Actually, you didn’t teach us this one. We had to learn it the hard way.)

How about you? Any thoughts you would write to your kids? Use the comment box below.