What qualities makes strength of character? Pt-2

Continuing from on from part 1 and characteristics that I wish to pass onto my children as they grow we come to the next lot of qualities that make up a persons character.......A lot of these qualities are sadly lacking in a lot of the world today and often we see famine, war, heartbreak etc because of it......These qualities are where we can make the greatest contributions to others and yet we become complacent and self absorbed too easily....

Its important to me to show my children how to be Compassionate..... This means having an understanding of the suffering of others, and a desire to help ease it..... Its developing empathy for those who are in need and being willing to help and become involved...With compassion I don't allow myself  room for greed... The best way to help my children see this by taking the time to listen to those around me and giving of my time, and "stuff " to help another when they need it most... I want my kids to understand that compassion is to be shown to all regardless of race, social standing, age etc..... I often tell my son when others are hurting in our world..... He knows there are kids in the word who don't have enough to eat and he feels sad for them..... He will ask why and how we can fix it......At only 6 he already is grasping some form of empathy

Another quality that will make my children men and women of good moral standing is the ability to be Benevolent..... To give without desire for getting back......I try to help others when I see need(alas not as often as i should but i am trying to change this) and I try to make my children understand that things do not make us happy though at times they don't get it especially when the TV say it will (yep even i think that things are gonna make me happy sometimes...especially chocolate).... I want them to grasp how good it feels to give without ulterior motive.... Whenever we used to go church my son would be given his own coins for offering......He would be told that he needed to put it in the bowl...at times he didn't want to but through watching the other people give he desired to do the same...This is where again we see that quiet example helps build character more than words....Another example is Christmas with the Department store Wishing trees.... My son knows that some kids don't get presents and he knows that we take a card from the tree and buy a gift so that a child can have joy on Christmas morning...again this is giving without expecting back and he sees it in action

In my life its been so hard at times to be able to show Forgiveness to those who have done me wrong and so I have spent a lot of my time and energy being angry..... Its doesn't make me feel any better and it doesn't hurt those who have wronged me......Its important that our children learn to forgive and not hold grudges.... I  get my kids to tell me when they have done the wrong thing  and I always tell them I forgive them for their actions.... I tell my son that when others hurt us we have to take it with all our strength and not go to hit or hurt back.......and I am trying to show them more of this active forgiveness by asking theirs when I do them wrong.......My son last year spent a lot of time hurting others and he always told me that they did it first so he made them sorry..... He also was often Heart broken by the fact that he was friendless sometimes and he would be so angry and so bitter..... I took time to explain to him that he cant hit in revenge and that when someone hurts him he has to smile and just keep walking on.....He still is having trouble with this one but i am sure one day he will remember it when he needs it most..........


Please go to part 3