I’ll be honest. I don’t like politics. I don’t like political posts. The only “C” I ever got in college was in Political Science because I dislike politics so much. Yet, in light of our country’s recent responses to our president-elect, I feel I must say something.

If you think the newest president will impact your child more than you will, then you’re parenting wrong. Children are a reflection of their parents and more is always caught than taught. You must be the kind of person you want your children to be. If you want them to be loving and accepting, then you must be loving and accepting. If you want them to help and care for those less fortunate, then show them how to help and care for the less fortunate. If you want them to be more like Jesus, then you need to be more like Jesus.

My parents tell a story from when I was around 2 or so and my dad was driving and another car pulled out in front of him. Without any prompting, I yelled from the backseat “get out of the way lady”. Is this a stage of toddler road rage most children go through? No. More is caught than taught. My parents didn’t teach me how to get mad at other drivers, it was modeled for me. Just like I unfortunately model bad habits and slip-ups to my daughters.

But we have to try and model the good, to model the kind. We have to be the best representation of Jesus in their lives that we can be. “We love, because He first loved us”, 1 John 4:19

When we demonstrate kindness and love, treating others with respect, they will catch on to it. Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it”.

The best training is hands-on, we can make them read the “manual” over and over, but until they see the Gospel in action, by the adults that impact them the most, they won’t catch on. Model for them the right path and those character traits of kindness, love and care will flourish. We have to work on us, before we can work on them. It doesn’t matter who sits in office. As adults, we might look to that seat as the one of most importance, but for our children, it’s the seat we are sitting in.

Thanks for letting me share,