Manners, They Don't Have to Be a Thing of The Past
It's common now days to hear people say, "No one has any manners anymore."
Sometimes that seems true doesn't it?
Manners are harder to teach our children than they are to show our children.
I have the perfect example, once when the kids where small I was talking to them about manners, Lucas said, "Mom, I know what good manners are," I said "Okay, what are they?" He said, "You should never wipe your hands on another guys pants you should wipe them on your own pants?"
See, not one time did Lucas ever see his mother wipe her hands on anyones pants and so he didn't do it either.
But really, do we show manners in the home?
Do we say please and thank you to our children?
Do they stand beside us in the store or sit with us in the car at the drive-thru and hear us tell the people waiting on us those words.
Do they see us stand to give our seat to the elderly?
Do our sons watch as their dad holds the door for a lady our give up his seat?
Do our daughters watch us be gracious in accepting a mannerly gesture when it's offered?
Have they watched us stand and give a firm handshake and warm smile to someone when they enter a room or we are introduced?
Are we aware of the tone we take with those older than us, are we showing respect for position and age even if it's hard?
The best way to have a polite society is to be a polite society.
Make an extra effort to always behave mannerly but especially in front of your children.
We shouldn't act in any manner we don't like to see someone else act.
There is always someone watching, at the end of the day someone may go home and tell a story about their encounter with us around their family supper table.
We need to make sure it's a story we would be glad for our kids to overhear.
If we want manners to return we have to each one bring them back ourselves and pass them down to our children by living them out in front of them.
Manners, they don't have to be a thing of the past, at least not on our watch anyway.
Sometimes that seems true doesn't it?
Manners are harder to teach our children than they are to show our children.
I have the perfect example, once when the kids where small I was talking to them about manners, Lucas said, "Mom, I know what good manners are," I said "Okay, what are they?" He said, "You should never wipe your hands on another guys pants you should wipe them on your own pants?"
See, not one time did Lucas ever see his mother wipe her hands on anyones pants and so he didn't do it either.
But really, do we show manners in the home?
Do we say please and thank you to our children?
Do they stand beside us in the store or sit with us in the car at the drive-thru and hear us tell the people waiting on us those words.
Do they see us stand to give our seat to the elderly?
Do our sons watch as their dad holds the door for a lady our give up his seat?
Do our daughters watch us be gracious in accepting a mannerly gesture when it's offered?
Have they watched us stand and give a firm handshake and warm smile to someone when they enter a room or we are introduced?
Are we aware of the tone we take with those older than us, are we showing respect for position and age even if it's hard?
The best way to have a polite society is to be a polite society.
Make an extra effort to always behave mannerly but especially in front of your children.
We shouldn't act in any manner we don't like to see someone else act.
There is always someone watching, at the end of the day someone may go home and tell a story about their encounter with us around their family supper table.
We need to make sure it's a story we would be glad for our kids to overhear.
If we want manners to return we have to each one bring them back ourselves and pass them down to our children by living them out in front of them.
Manners, they don't have to be a thing of the past, at least not on our watch anyway.
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