Pages

Responsibility: Giving Back

One of the most important values that we try to instill upon our children is responsibility.  In addition to being responsible for typical kid issues such as remembering their homework and cleaning their rooms, we focus on "grown-up" responsibilities too such as being responsible to this amazing planet we call home and being responsible for those less fortunate, both near and far.  After all, we aren't raising children, right?  We're raising responsible adults, who happen to still be children.

This weekend, Cadence and I had the opportunity to, once again, prepare dinner and serve some homeless families from our community.  We sat around the dinner table with them and talked about the beautiful fall weather we've been having; their plans for the upcoming weeks; and one family even shared how they came to be homeless.  Their story was something that could easily happen to pretty much everyone I know.

They had children that were around Cadence's age and she had a great time playing basketball and soccer with them.  This is the second time that Cadence has helped with this program and I continue to be very proud of how well she does.  She has never asked the children questions or made them feel uncomfortable.  She doesn't play with them any differently than she does the kids in our neighborhood.  She was having so much fun playing that it was difficult to get her to leave.  She probably would have stayed their all night if I would have let her.

I continue to be impressed by Cadence's compassion for the world around her and for the personal responsibility that she feels towards helping others.  Her birthday is on October 29th.  A month or so ago, she approached me and told me that she didn't want any presents.  Instead, she would like everyone to collect new kids' shoes in her honor so she could donate the shoes to a charity for distribution to children in need.  I'm so proud of that kid.


0 comments:

Post a Comment