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I’m sure we’ve all seen the quote, “In a world where you can be anything, be kind.” It’s on shirts, window clings for the car, hats, cups…it’s everywhere. Along the same lines with the quotes about “Raising Kind Humans”. I think it’s pretty good advice and I try to be kind in every situation. Just as Mark and I try to raise Izayah to be a kind human. We raised our big kids to be kind and I think that worked out.
Recently Izayah came home from school and I could tell that he was upset about something. As per usual, as he was having is snack, we chatted about his day at school. I asked him the usual questions, Did you have a good day? Who did you sit with at lunch? Did you help anyone today? Did anyone help you today? Those are the standard 4 questions everyday, and then he tells me the highlights of his day. It’s my favorite part of the day!
Later, he came over and asked me if I knew _____ and _____ and I said that I did. He proceeded to tell me that “their parents work for good companies and make a lot of money and ______ and ______ think that makes them Kings of the World.” The frustration in his voice was clear and my heart sunk…He immediately followed that up with, “But that’s not right.”
This is something that has plagued the generations, probably since Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. I told Izayah the same thing that I told my big kids when they had similar experiences. “It doesn’t matter how much money a person has, that’s not what makes you a good person. What makes you a good person is how you treat people. We need to always try and treat others the way we ourselves would like to be treated. Being a good person is 100% free, everyone can afford to do it.”
I think that we can all agree that raising kids is hard, like really hard. But I think something we can easily forget is that being a kid is hard, like really hard. Kids absolutely learn by example, there is no disputing that, and we all know what it’s like to be a kid and want to “fit in”. It doesn’t matter where or who that example comes from or even if it’s not a good one, kids are watching and they are learning. In today’s society, they have even more examples…right at the tips of their fingers with social media, and I think we can all agree, not all of them are good examples.
Sometimes we find ourselves justifying why we have treated others poorly or why they have treated us poorly. What we should do, and what I am going to try to do is be kind anyway. Being kind can be hard, no doubt about that, but it isn’t just a trend, it’s real life, and it effects everyone we come into contact with. There is another quote that says, “Kindness is free, sprinkle that stuff everywhere.” Let’s do that, even when it’s hard.
Keeping it Real 