I just completed a long project for one of our two children. It is a birthday gift for our daughter’s upcoming birthday, and it filled many hours with a mixture of labor and loving memories. With my husband’s assistance, we scanned every photo we have of our daughter since her birth 36 years ago. We lived in Japan from her birth until she was nearly seven years old.
Many of these photos were torn, bent, or yellowed, so after scanning them, we restored each on the computer, adjusting color, removing scratches, hiding mold spots, and healing torn places. Months later, every photo restored, I categorized them – reliving the past 36 years of her life, and trying to assign each photo to the proper year. I created computer file folders for eras, and placed each photo’s file in its era. A few were dated, but most were not – one result of having two babies five months apart!
When at last I thought I had the photos in the proper years, I created descriptive names for each photo, and burned several disks: one for our safe deposit box, one for our daughter, one for her brother, and one to keep at home.
A project like this reminds one of what’s involved in raising children – and gives reason to be thankful if the children you raised are living a worthy adult life. I gratefully believe both of our children are doing so.
Character counts in raising children. It counts greatly. The little chores captured in some of our daughter’s early Japan photos – something as small as vacuuming straw-mat floors or hanging laundry on a low clothesline – helped her learn responsibility. Gathering rice straw for their rabbits’ nest helped her learn compassion for animals. Pulling enormous lotus leaves and turning those huge leaves into umbrellas helped her learn creativity. Playing with the Japanese children helped her learn to share. It helped her learn self-control, too, when one little boy developed a habit of biting.
Character counts in raising children, and I’m glad my parents taught me that before we had two children of our own. It is a joy to look back on our son and daughter’s childhood, since they learned character early. It is an even greater joy to look back on their teen years, and at the man and woman they have become: a man and woman of character.
Character counts in raising children – and helps prevent the heartache that comes from children who have not learned moral excellence. Yesterday’s headlines said that two Florida teens who are suspected of beating three homeless men – killing one – turned themselves over to the police. I would be devastated if our son had taken that route in life. Thankfully, character building played a part in closing that road to him.
Our son’s birthday will be five months from now, so we’ve already begun a twin photo project for him. More scanning. More restoration. More computer filing and titling. Many photos will be duplicates, but even if I had to start at the beginning, it would be worth it. I look forward to seeing hints of developing character in his childhood photos, and signs of it in teens and later. I know it is there. It helped him become the man that he is.
We have been blessed, and we long to see other families experience similar blessing, which is a big reason that we founded character-in-action.com.
That’s the view from my chair. What’s your view?