Parenting that Develops Good Character

As I posted on my New Year's Facebook page, this is the year that I will finally write "that book" that I've thought about for 30 years. Over time, the topic has evolved but there has always been this consistent, internal voice that has kept whispering, "Write a book, write a book." Well, now, that voice is yelling at me, "WRITE A BOOK! WRITE A BOOK."
The book I plan to write, OK strike that out. It should say the book I am writing is a book on parenting. I've given this a lot of thought this past week, and I have gotten great input from several of my "young" teacher friends and others, who have kids at home, that has helped me find the perspective from which the book will be written.
Most of the books I read when I was parenting gave good and sometimes excellent advice on how to handle specific behavior or situation challenges. There are many more of those books available today. So my question was, what did I have to say that would make my book stand out from the others? What did I have to offer that would provide something uniquely beneficial and interesting?
Then I remembered the day I brought my firstborn daughter home. I recall sitting in the rocking chair, holding her and marveling about this "perfect" miracle that I had been given. It occurred to me that in truth, at that moment she was perfect. Not only was physically perfect, she was completely perfect in mind, body and spirit. I was suddenly aware of the awesome responsibility I had to write on this beautiful, perfect canvass of a life. For several moments I was overwhelmed with those thoughts. "How in the world could I keep from 'messing up' this perfect little life?" As I continued to think about this, I realized that the best thing I could do would be to raise this child as a gift to the world. (Yes, I actually thought those exact words!) What that meant to me was this: God had given me this child "on loan" from him. My job was to think about the type of adult who could and would make a difference in the world. That meant I thought about the type of character traits I wanted to encourage and develop in her. Thinking from that point of view gave me a foundation from which to make better day to day choices. I now realize that was also how I learned to plan a lot of things. It's called, "Begin with the End in Mind." And that is what this book on parenting will be about!
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