Make It Better

Are you disappointed with the world around you?  If so, perhaps you could join me as I try to make it better!

Are you disappointed with the world?  I am–there is too much anger, hatred, crime, and drug abuse.

Although neither you nor I can change the whole world instantly, there is a simple thing we can do to make it better.

What can we do to make the world a better place?  We can encourage kids.  Kids are our future. Encouraging them to keep doing their best is the most effective way to motivate them to avoid negative attitudes, drugs, and crime–and become successful, productive adults.

How can you encourage kids who do not live in your home?

• Actively listen to them.

If you don’t know what active listening is, why it is important, or how to do it, please read this post.

• Praise and support their efforts.

Today in the newspaper I saw an article about a local craft show that is just for young entrepreneurs.  It is only for two hours on a Saturday morning three weeks from this Saturday, but I will probably be there the entire two hours, looking at what the kids have made and buying gifts from them.  By doing this, I will encourage each one of them to keep doing what he or she loves to do.

You can do the same thing! Read your newspaper and find similar events, then go out to praise and support the kids in your community.

• Give them opportunities.

Do you have yard work to do that you cannot seem ever to get done? Or a car that needs to be washed?

Often at our home we do, and we find a local child to help us.  We praise the child profusely each hour he works, offer him water bottles and snacks, and do not let him work too long.  Then we pay him well.  Everyone who has worked at our home has wanted to return and work more.

You can hook a child on the joy and satisfaction of working and making money for the rest of his life by doing this.  And when a child is hooked on working and earning money, he is much less likely to become involved in troublesome activities.

If you teach a child the way he should go, he does not depart from that way as an adult.

• Role Modeling

Role model positive behaviors. Encourage, support, and work with others instead of hating.  Support politicians who role model positive behaviors.  Speak with your child honestly about others who exhibit negative and positive attitudes and behaviors.

When a child grows up, he does what he saw the adults around him do.

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It is much easier just to sit around and complain about the way the world is today than it is to make it better. But just try to imagine the possibilities if more people would try to make the world better…

Just imagine a world with less anger, hatred, crime, and drug addiction about 10 years from now.  Then encourage a child as often as possible!

Let the encouraging words in these near a river posts help you

soar like an eagle above life’s storms.

This is the worst option!

Never forget the word honor.

How do you communicate love?

What would MLK say right now to us?