First, thank you ALL for your kind words of wisdom and appreciation and more. I had no idea I would spend the entire day in tears off and on!

Wisdom for Wednesday

Wise Ole' Abe

I read this this morning (do two thises make a that?:-) and thought it wise to pass along to you…

“You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence.

You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.”

~ Abraham Lincoln

A note to parents: one of the biggest hinderances to becoming a responsible adult is having everything done for you as a child, including having all of your purchases and all of your needs and wants provided to you at any sort of a simple whim.

Do NOT do things for your child if he or she is old enough to do that thing for himself. When my son Andrew was growing up, as soon as I saw him try something, I knew he was, 1) ready to learn to do it and 2) ready to do it himself. At that point, I taught him and fully empowered him to do it himself simply by allowing him to do it AND refusing to do it anymore for him.

At 27 years old, he is a responsible young man who is delightful to be around. I take partial responsibility for that.

Just something to think about…