When I said it to my students, I needed to hear it myself, “Choose to do the right thing, even when no one is watching.” Let’s be honest, we struggle with choices as adults too. 

We’re going to make mistakes, just like our kids.  There are times when we’re going to make mistakes in PARENTING our kids!  Then, (gulp), we’re going to have to apologize.  My mother is from Cuba and my dad is from New Jersey- that story is for another time.  With the Cuban heritage comes this gene that can only be described as STUBBORN (or strong?).  It was not easy for me to say I’m sorry to my kids, but I had to learn.

Because of our faith, we raised our children in a Christian home.  We decided from the start that worshipping together as a family and modeling the Sabbath as a holy day was important to us; we knew we would need help in this process of parenting.   “Church” was/is a part of our lives.

That doesn’t mean it was easy!  That just means that GRACE had a place in our home.  I believed I was forgiven, I had to forgive, and I had to ask for forgiveness.

There were times when I lost my temper and my volume was intense!  There were times when I spoke inappropriately about others.  There were times when the very words I was telling my kids not to use were spewing out of my own mouth!   Let’s just say that I am still working on this problem, and that Netflix binging is not helping.

I had to say, “Mommy was wrong and I should not have said those words.  I am sorry……. (gulp again)…..can you forgive me?”  I had to swallow my pride and model the thing that I was asking them to do.

During some very challenging situations, we actually had to seek Christian counseling.  There were tough teenage years, where we just needed council on how to parent.  This was invaluable in modeling for our kids, as hard and humbling as it was.  We had to seek help and accept it.

We’re all “working on it”,  right?   I am still saying words that I shouldn’t.   I need to choose differently in many areas of life, in order to do the right thing.

Sorry Michael, I believe more Hallmark may be required.