Be Intentional About Teaching Your Children on a Regular Basis How to Have Good Character
I was a teacher for many years before I became a parent. That experience taught me a lot of things in this parenting journey~ things I don’t think I would have known otherwise. Being in the classroom, along with studying education and child development research enables me to apply what I’ve learned to my personal parenting journey. I also want to encourage and help parents.
I discovered how important it is to teach positive character to children starting when they are as young as babies and toddlers. Children don’t automatically know how to behave correctly. They need to be taught. Teaching this skill requires work and commitment from parents. It is not enough to just hope that they learn it in school or maybe once a week on Sundays at church. Parents have to be dedicated to teaching and modeling to their children how to have good character. Character traits like treating others with respect, being responsible, being diligent, being honest, being patient… and the list goes on and on.
I love this quote that says “Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.” As parents, we can make a commitment to set aside a few minutes each day to teach our kids how to have good character and how to make good decisions. Just like we have to take time to teach our children subjects such as reading and math, the same concept applies to teaching our kids about character.
It’s also important to remember that our kids, like us, will never be perfect. They will make mistakes at times. Their actions might embarrass us occasionally. But we have to be committed to keep loving them always, being patient, and positively teaching them. You also have to discipline your children when they misbehave. Deciding to not correct or deal with bad behavior does not solve the problem. It usually makes the behavior worse. It’s best to take time to figure out why they are behaving that way and take the necessary steps to help them change for the better.
We can help our children learn that life will not always go their way and that they will face challenges. They need to be taught to do the right thing, even if everyone else is doing the wrong thing. As parents, we can teach them how to positively overcome challenges, so they don’t fall apart every time someone does or says something unkind to them.
Your children’s character is also influenced by what they watch, what they listen to, and who they spend the majority of their time with. As parents, we have to be aware of these things so we can guide them in the right direction.
Life is busy, but you have to be intentional about teaching good character to your kids on a regular basis. It’s one of our responsibilities as a parent. God will hold us accountable to this. You can help your kids develop good character by reading books to them that teach good character. Read Bible verses to them. Play children’s songs for them that sing about having good character traits. Be a model with your words and actions so they have a good example to follow. Having well behaved kids with good character will make you feel good as a parent. And God does amazing things in our life when we honor Him through obedience and good character! Please be encouraged and try your best each day~ take it one day at a time.