Bill Corbett

I saw a friend the other day and complimented him on his suit. It looked freshly pressed and the creases were sharp. To me, it looked like a brand new suit, but in response to my compliment, he quickly said, “It’s just an old suit that I got out of the back of my closet.” Have you ever given someone a compliment like I did, only to have the other person tell you that she got it off the clearance rack at a local clothing store? How did her reply make you feel in that moment? Did you feel energized to provide more or did you feel a sudden let down that your compliment was a waste of time and not accepted? As a parent, how often do you compliment your child or your teen? What about your significant other? Sometimes it seems like we give more compliments to others than we do to our own family. And what about you; what do you say when someone compliments you or your outfit? Have you noticed that you too provide a response that minimizes the gift you just received? I think we do this...

It’s definitely a different world from the one we experienced as children.  We work harder today to create comfortable lives for our families and it’s hard to accept that our children don’t seem to appreciate what they have and what we do.  In so many ways it’s become a world of instant gratification with just about everything available 24-7 for our convenience.  But it’s up to us to teach our children gratitude through the example we set and the discipline we use at home.     Some parents think that discipline simply involves actions you take when your children misbehave and act out.  It’s not!  As a variation of the word “disciple,” which means to teach or to train, discipline means “the training expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior, especially training that produces moral or mental improvement,” and it’s an opportunity we have every time we are with our children.  Parents need to spend more time and effo...