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| http://www.coler-v.k12.mo.us/elementary/pat/pat.htm |
Thankful for my parents. Although they weren't "teachers" in the normal version of the word, they did teach me a lot. I learned through actual teaching (do this, don't do that, instructions, etc.). I also learned by just watching what they did and/or how they did it. I learned about the love of Jesus Christ from them. They took me to church from an infant on. As a teen, I chose where to go to church and most of the time went to a local church (that I walked to) without them (they went to a church farther away). I walked in the heat, the rain, the snow, and the mud. 16 and going to church on a Wednesday night was not something most teens my age were doing.
I learned to give. My parents never "taught" me to give to others, but I learned by watching them. If someone was in need of something, they usually "have {insert item} laying around somewhere....it's yours if you want it....I won't need it." Sometimes that item wasn't that old, but they never wanted that person to feel like they were receiving charity. The response from the grateful receiver was mostly "Well, if you're not going to use it, I would be grateful for it." The saying to give them the shirt off your back certainly fit(s) with my parents.
They also help others in need. They believe (just by living with them then and watching them) that charity begins at home. I'm not talking about home as in their house, but home as in locally. They seem(ed) to have a calling to help the elderly. If there was a widow woman that mom had gotten to know that needed help, they would. From cutting her grass to taking care of her flowers to just sitting with her "having coffee".
Did I learn the "basics" in life from my mom like cooking or cleaning? No. But I did learn some of the most important lessons in life. Cooking and cleaning and other "basics" can be learned anytime, but everything they taught me can't be learned in a classroom. The "basics" they taught me should be fundamental in every house. Put God first, help others. If I do just those two things, I think that everything else will fall into place. And that everything else I need to know will be taught to me when I need it.
