Ask My Children

Small children are pure observers, with no ideology or interest to color their perceptions. When we teach someone in a scholarly sense, it’s our words and the strength of our arguments that count. Our private actions may contradict our words, but our actions never enter the equation. When we raise children, they learn from our actions long before they understand the nuances of our rhetoric. Taking them to Sunday School once a week — or teaching them to say a bedtime prayer each night — doesn’t mean much if we aren’t living like Jesus the other six days.

This is a comfort and a conundrum. You’ll never be judged too harshly for words you didn’t mean if your actions show that you didn’t mean them, but you’ll also not be let off the hook if what you say and what you do are inconsistent.