MAKE YOURSELF PROUD!

Last Sunday another message blared boldly and colorfully from my five year old grand-daughter's T-shirt. Another reason I wanted to hug her .... and the person who created that shirt... and the person who gave her that shirt.

I wonder what our days would be like if we started them by asking ourselves, "What am I going to do today to make myself proud?"
Or ended them by asking ourselves, "What did I do to make myself feel proud today?"
I wonder if the answers would shine a stunningly bright light on what we value?

And I wonder too how it might impact our children and grandchildren if we asked them what makes them feel proud at dinner each night.

Perhaps there is a partial answer to that last wondering in my grand-daughter's response when I asked her what she had done that day that made her feel proud of herself......

"I have never answered this hard of a question before!"

SOLUTION FOCUSED!

My good friend recently had her old windows replaced.  It was going to be a big job for the crew coming in to do the job. She was a bit worried about how it all would go.

At one point, she came into her kitchen to find one of the workers half inside and half outside the large window over her sink.  The casement was entirely removed and there were shavings strewn about.  The new window was set aside.
"Oh, you've got a problem," she said to him.
His response was direct and strong, "I don't see problems; I see solutions."

I love that response.  I wonder what it would take for more of us to reframe our thinking .... to be solution focused?  Aren't children innately that way?  Where does it go?  How do we get it back?  How do we help our children stay solution focused as they grow?
That's what I'm wondering about today.

BeNice.com

OK ---- I could give all sorts of excuses, but they all would be just that ---excuses.  There is NO good reason why I have not posted since November.  It is not as if there weren't plenty of opportunities to witness kids DOING what is RIGHT, or being COURAGEOUS. I am also sure many fabulous folks were out there teaching our kids about INTEGRITY.   But what kick-started me in the direction of this blog again was seeing my wonderful five year old grand-daughter wearing a T-shirt that said in big, fat pink letters "BE NICE"!

I want a shirt that says that!  I want to start a new blog called BE NICE dot COM!  I want it to get a million hits an hour.  I want people lined up to buy those shirts like they line up to buy tickets to The Hunger Games!

 OR ...... I would settle for none of that as long as our kids and grandkids could start seeing everyone around them simply being NICE.  What would it take?  I wonder.