We bring our precious little people into the world and pour our hearts and souls into lovingly raising…what? Have you stopped and thought about what kind of a person you’re trying to raise and what steps you’re taking to accomplish that? If not, here are a few thoughts to get you started! Character training seems to have gone out of style in some schools in favor of an all-out focus on standardized testing, but children need guidance and good examples of positive character traits if we want them to grow up to be productive members of our world. The good news is that parents who live out those positive character traits have a more powerful and lasting influence on children than any character training curriculum ever developed! The first step, of course, is to decide just what character traits you want to model for your children. Here are a few examples of the kinds of traits you might want to focus on passing along to your children. (A more comprehensive list is at the bottom of this post.) Generosity It's not what you say. It's what you do! Honesty Helpfulness Resourcefulness Compassion Friendliness Creativity Courage Cheerfulness Self-control Responsibility Respect After considering what you want to model for your children, the next step is to look at how (or if!) you’re walking out those character traits in your life. Remember, your children will learn far, far more from watching what you do than from hearing what you say. You can lecture them eloquently about self-control, but if your children constantly see you angry and frustrated and yelling (i.e. lacking self-control), then that is what they’ll internalize. You can preach a sermon on honesty, but if your children see you lying to your boss (‘cough, cough’ “Sorry, I can’t come in to work today. I’m sick…Okay, kids, let’s go to the beach!”) and cheating on your taxes, that’s what they will learn. You can rhapsodize about the value of compassion, but if your children see you ignoring their needs in favor of your own, judging instead of helping those in need, and gossiping about others’ pain, that is how they will learn to live