Picture Courtesy of chartingnature.com

This past Sunday our church pastor was doing a sermon on friendship.  The title? “When your backs against the wall…..You have to have friends”.   Without going into a sermon of my own, the gist of the lecture was that you’ve got to have “good, solid friends.”  These friends are the ones that listen and comfort when you are down, share in your joy when you are up, and hold you accountable when you’re falling off the beaten path.  These friendships are essential for everyone.

 

Well, this got me thinking about my daughters.  Although I’m a few years off from having to worry too much about whom my girls spend their time with and play with, I thought I would generate some discussion for those of you who have to deal with this now.

 

As your kids go through elementary school, middle school, and into high school, how do you keep “tabs” on who your kids are hanging out with?  Better yet, how do you help encourage your kids to choose their friends wisely?  How do you encourage them to build positive friendships that will help make them better human beings, while also encouraging them who to avoid?  Or, is it better to let them go their own way, and learn from any mistakes or successes they have?

 Please share your stories/insights/advice, as I’m sure many parents in this great community we have built here at Dad-O-Matic have contemplated the same questions.

My name is Eric Peterson and I’ve been given the opportunity, by Chris, to be able and participate in this wonderful writing project.  First, let me say “thank you Chris,” and second, let me say it’s an honor to be able to share with all of you.

With that, I thought I would actually pull an old post that I had written for my “home” blog about a year ago (actually, it’ll be a year tomorrow).  This post is about one of the many lessons I have learned from one of my daughters, who was 2-1/2 at the time.  Please remember that this text is verbatim from a previous post that was written a year ago. 

A Toddler Taught Adversity Lesson!!  You know….sometimes children can make the best professors!!

The Story (written 10/11/07)
My wife and I had a scare a few nights ago. After putting our 2-1/2 year old daughter into bed for the night we retreated downstairs for a movie. About 30 minutes in we heard a large crash come from upstairs. I ran upstairs to find my daughter standing at the foot of her bed screaming in pain. At the time I was sure that she had fallen off her bed, but I wasn’t sure what exactly had happened (a day later we figured out that she was jumping on her bed in the dark and fell off).

When I picked her up by the armpits she began to scream hysterically. I knew something wasn’t right, but all I could get out of her was her neck hurt. We called my in-laws to come over and watch our 3 month old. Upon their arrival we left for the ER (this was around 10:30 pm).

To shorten the story a bit (and to get on to the “adversity lesson”), after some x-rays, some Tylenol with codeine, and 2-1/2 hours in the ER, it was confirmed that my daughter had broken her collarbone. Luckily, it is “cracked” and not broken all the way through, so we hope the healing time will only be a few weeks instead of upwards of 6 weeks.

The Lesson (written 10/11/07)
Fast forward a couple days now! Watching my daughter, I have really seen how she has been able to adapt to her situation. Life has thrown her a minor league curve ball, and she is handling it quite well.

See, she loves to play. She is a very active girl. She is also a very smart girl, and she has figured out how to do some of her favorite activities without inflicting pain onto her left arm. It’s neat to see her figure out how to stand up and sit down, get off the couch, color, play with her dolls, play in her kitchen, all her favorite activities, and doing them with a temporary disability. A little adversity has come her way (in the form of a broken collarbone), and she has dealt with it and been able to accomplish the very same things she was accomplishing before “The Fall.” Needless to say, it is a pretty proud moment in her mother and father’s eyes (of course, along with the sympathy we have for seeing her in pain)!

Children can be so inspirational. It’s neat to see how they grow and develop, and even teach adults important lessons. So, that was my toddler taught adversity lesson. Or maybe it was actually a lesson on “independence” or “perseverance” or “toughness.” At any rate, it’s another valuable lesson from a special child! Do you have any “lessons learned” from your kids? How about from others in general?