How bad do you want it?

Do you want (your) children to grow up to embrace a higher standard of conduct?

If yes, then you have no choice but to model that standard for them. Some one has to show them what it looks like.

It seems as though the younger generation has always fallen short of the standards set by their parents. But they almost never fall short of the example set by their parents.

If we really want our children to hold themselves accountable to a higher standard; we will have to lead by our example.

Children completing Character Counts class used to get a tee shirt that on its front and back read;

Stand up for what you believe in
even if you are standing alone.

During a child’s moment of truth, they should never find themselves alone. There should be an adult behind them offering encouragement and support; an adult beside them sharing the load; and an adult in front of them leading by their example.

It seems silly to try to write about the role modeling and other important things; when so many others have said it so well.

Aphorisms; you either love them or hate them. I hope you appreciate some of the ones I reflect on.

"To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society." Theodore Roosevelt

"Don't worry that children never listen to you. Worry that they are always watching you." Fulghum

"Children need models rather than critics." Joubert

“The question for the child is not ‘Do I want to be good?’ but ‘Whom do I want to be like?’ ” Bettelheim

“Example has more followers than reason.” Bovee

"Why are we surprised when fig trees bear figs?" Titzel

"If we want our children to possess the traits of character we most admire, we need to teach them what those traits are and why they deserve both admiration and allegiance. Children must learn to identify the forms and content of those traits." Bennett
"The formation of character in young people is educationally a different task from and a prior task to, the discussion of the great, difficult ethical controversies of the day." Bennett

"It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human beings, collected together, are not under the same moral laws which bind each of them separately." Thomas Jefferson

"To see what is right and not to do it is cowardice." Confucius

"Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or we grow weak, and at last some crisis shows us what we have become." Brooke Foss Westcott

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke

"The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil." Arendt

"Most people are good only so long as they believe others to be so." Friedrich Hebbel

"No one ever became extremely wicked suddenly." Juvenal,

[Because power corrupts] “Society’s demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.” John Adams

"If we lived in a state where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us saintly. But since we see that avarice, anger, pride and stupidity commonly profit far beyond charity, modesty, justice and thought, perhaps we must stand fast a little, even at the risk of being heroes." A Man For All Seasons

“The people have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge – I mean of the character and conduct of their rulers.” John Adams

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power." Abraham Lincoln

“I am only one, but still, I am one. I cannot do everything but I can do something. And, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do what I can.” Edward Everett Hale

“We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.” Calvin Coolidge