Kindness
One of the things that has always been an important part of character training for my children over the years has been kindness. I've stressed the value of being kind. At first it was simply to each other. I never allowed mean teasing or making fun of each other. I stressed how this would make them feel and do they like that feeling? There are simple ways in life to be kind. One that I practice is to smile. Sounds small, but I smile at people when I'm out and about. I've seen grumpy faces light up with just a simple smile. I've seen smiles come back to me that made my so-so day brighter. I have one daughter who is a cashier at a grocery store. It's amazing the amount of grumpy, grouchy, and sometimes just unkind people she comes across in a day at work. I know we don't think much about how we interact with the person checking out our groceries or items at a department store. But, they deal with a lot of people and it would be easy to get cal...