Choose The Right

When I first became a parent, I wondered how on earth I was ever going to be able to make sure that these precious souls were taught everything they need to know in life. I knew that I certainly would not be their only educator, however parents are, without a doubt, the biggest single influence on a child. Not a day goes by that I don’t take a look at my own actions and wonder how they perceive them. And for this, I say my children have made me a better parent. Though some might question it, there really is a thought pattern that goes into everything I do and say because I know that someday I’ll be held accountable for everything. Does that make me perfect? Uh, no. Not by the largest stretch of the imagination. I’m sure when the day comes that I have to meet my maker, I’ll have plenty of atonement to render.

I wrote earlier about my daughter so eloquently demonstrating the importance of doing the right thing even when you don’t feel like it. No one ever said it would be easy to do the right thing. Sometimes you want to avoid it, hoping to avoid other conflicts. Sometimes you want to avoid it because it’s just more work. Sometimes you want to avoid it because it means having to admit to someone that you’ve done wrong. Sometimes it just isn’t clear what the right thing is. The list goes on and on.

However, my daughter was right on the mark, because sometimes by doing the right thing, even when you don’t want to, you find out more about yourself and about the people around you than you thought possible.

For myself, I found that I may not be as thick skinned as I would like to believe. At the same time, I discovered that I really don’t care as much as I thought I would about approval from strangers. Friends are a different matter. And it’s extremely interesting that when presented with a “do the right thing challenge”, my real friends are the ones who understand the motivation, the though process, the intent and are willing to accept that, even though they might do it differently, their opinion of me doesn't have to change. Friends whose opinions are as easily shifted as sands by tide waters are not friends you can count on to support you in doing right. I also discovered that there really is peace in knowing that you did what is right, instead of what is easy.

So here’s the newest lesson I hope to pass on to my children: the friends who support you in doing right are the friends you want to keep close. Those who support you to do anything but right are the friends you need to keep at an arms length. You don’t have to ditch your friends because they aren’t perfect or because they don’t have the same opinions, but be mindful of which friends are influencing your behavior.

They already grasp the most basic part of the concept. Choose The Right.