“We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can at least prepare our children for the future“

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt~

Your kids are a facing a world more difficult than the one you grew up in. If you are a grandparent, then your grandkids are facing a world 1o times more difficult than you did. It’s hard to predict or project what might occur tomorrow, much less in a decade or two from now. But, don’t worry, you don’t need a glimpse into the future in order to prepare you kids today. Preparation can be difficult work. But, preparation today makes for prosperity tomorrow.

What can I do today to prepare my children for tomorrow? 

1 – Model hard work. You are responsible for the work ethic that your child will grow up with. Work ethic is not an inherited or endowed trait. No, work ethic is most often a modeled behavior. When children see their parents or parent working hard, it instills in the child an invisible imprint of what hard work is supposed to work like. I have interviewed countless young men and women who have stated that their single parent, almost always a mother, was their model of a good hard work. Children need to see their parents work hard, but parents also need to engage the child to join in the work. I am not talking about abusing your children with impossible adult tasks, but rather, the enlistment of your child to join a task and fulfill it unto completion. Invite your child to start a project with you–something that requires patience, perseverance and discipline to finish. 

2 – Finish what your start & start something worth finishing. This is called follow-through or better yet, commitment. Because parents are highly committed people these days, a climate in our homes of casual commitment is now the norm. This is where parents are massively slipping in today’s “what’s in it for me culture.” Make your children work a commitment through completion. Starting what you finish teaches the child to select things that they will ultimately have to be held accountable for. Children need to have real responsibility. Responsibility needs to grow with your child. Give them chores. Give them responsibilities around the house. Parents, stop modeling early-exits, half-way jobs and lackadaisical labor.

3- Teach them critical thinking, not criticism. Now, I didn’t say, teach them to be critical. We have enough critical and mean-spirited people in the world. In fact, it doesn’t take much to make people into critics and complainers. But, a critical thinker is one who learns to mentally examine something beyond the first reaction. Critical thinkers learn to think for themselves. They can construct reasonable arguments and demolish fallacies. The world does not need more puppets and pawns. Our world needs boys and girls who grow up into men and women who have the ability to analyze things for themselves and make an informed decision. Teach your children to think circumspectly about circumstances, situations and adversity.

4-  Teach your kids to do their homework. Kids hate homework. Parents hate when kids bring homework home! It becomes parent punishment. Doing their homework is not an option and should almost always be done before anything else–no video games, internet or social media until their work is done. This teaches your children that you are not to show up to a meeting, an assignment or a project unprepared as an adult. This lesson will come up later in life, when your child, now an adult, will need to understand that successful people put forth effort outside of their place of work. But, this is more than just about “work” this is about putting for the effort to investigate what they are doing. Doing your homework teaches your child to be the most prepared person in the room as an adult. Preparation is a significant key to success. 

5 – Read the Bible and other good books. My mother always said, “Readers are leaders and leaders are readers!” I would add that “readers are often the over-achievers!” Reading someone else’s thoughts have the power to mold, filter and sharpen your own thoughts. Reading the Bible and other quality books have a way to help us calibrate our minds.

Do you want your child to be well-rounded? Then model and instruct them to read. Start with the Bible. The Bible has been God’s instruction manual for over 5,000 years. It has served every generation that has trusted it’s words and applied them to their leadership and lifestyles with some of the most remarkable results the ever has ever heard. The Bible is the Great Book. There is none other like it, nor will there ever be. Abraham Lincoln knew the greatness of the Bible,

“In regard to this Great Book, I have to say it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it, we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man’s welfare here and hereafter are to be found and portrayed in it.”

Abraham Lincoln was right that “all things most desirable for man’s welfare” are contained in the pages of the Bible. Parents, do not neglect to read and teach your children the Bible. Begin with the Bible stories. Learn to love together the Bible with your children. Don’t assume they will discover the awesomeness of the Bible on their own. The world is against your child reading the Bible. If it’s not important to you, then why would you expect it to be important to them.

6. Teach your children to face adversity, not flee from it. Basically, teach your kids to be courageous. We have more cowards in the world than we need. We need our boys and girls to be courageous as children and grow into courageous adults. Teach your kids to be brave. Instill bravery into your kids, not recklessness. Courage counts the cost and moves forward with responsibility. Recklessness counts nothing and crashes forward with irresponsibility. The way to deal with adversity is to work through it, not walk around it. Walking around it is a form of denial and will produce greater problems in the future.

7. Teach your children to be good stewards, not good spenders. Stewardship is another word for management. Good stewards understand that their management leads to maximization.  Children need to learn to maximize what they have. This comes from a heart that is appreciative what has been received. Sadly, too many parents are terrible stewards, racking up credit card debit to satisfy their desire to keep up with everyone else (good at spending, bad at stewarding). Let me give parents a clue...everyone else is in debt too! (not everyone of course). Being a good steward/manager means learning to live at your means. Live with what God has provided. Stop trying to be like the people with the house on the hill, because those people are trying to be like the people on the next hill. Good stewards although ambitious, learn the secret of contentment. Teach your children to be satisfied and thankful of what they do have, not what they don’t have. Stewards are savers not spenders. Stewards are investors not gamblers.

The world grows more difficult. Prepare your children now for what they will face later. Your children are a blessing not a burden. How are you treating them?

“Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”

Deuteronomy 4:9

(c) Redwall, LLC. 2016