When you feel crabby, and are tempted to snap at your children, pause and remember, "If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! -- Matthew 18: 6, 7 This means, if you act harshly and cause nasty feelings inside your child, YOU are in the wrong. You can discipline without making your child ‘hate’ you. If your child EVER says that, stop and figure out how you should have used discipline rather than punishment. Then seek forgiveness from God and your child.

Another good axiom is that we would all be better off if we would give others a piece of our heart rather than a piece of our mind. While I try to follow this, there are times I’m tempted to make an exception. You will be tempted to. When I was little, my Mother called this “being the bigger person”. However you look at it, not only will others be blessed by your behaviour, but you will be blessed as well.

Pay it Forward! You can’t always repay a kindness exactly, but you can always be alert for opportunities to be kind. And the best way to to be altruistic is to take every chance you can, to be helpful without keeping score. There’s an old saying about keeping track of the good you do for others in the sand and of the good others to for you carved in stone. It’s a good philosophy.

Make a point of encouraging at least one person every single day. It can be as simple as a thank you, or a smile, but it very well may be the only caring thing that will happen to them that day. With a few basic human kindnesses, you could change a life and change the world.

Encourage rather than praise whenever you can. Encouragement is more difficult, because it requires you to pause a moment and interact with the other person. This applies to any person you are in contact with, but especially to interactions with children. When someone receives praise, they may come to feel they are entitled to it. When a person receives encouragement, they feel confident in what they have done, and then apply that confidence to their next endeavor.