250721 What I learned in my studies this morning 5

Today's Meditation(s):

The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Inferiority

Sounds easy. Isn't. But with gentle sincerity and cooperative guidance, progress can be made. Slow, halting, retrogressing, but progress nonetheless.

I try hard to help my children feel a deserved sense of self worth. I help them recognize what they do well, what their good qualities are, and to identify and correct faults and shortcomings in their character.

I teach them that a job is not who they are. To place their self-evaluation on the person they are rather than such a malleable, impermanent, and unimportant aspect of life as what they do to afford the life they want.

I teach them to value people over experiences over things. If they can have all three, that's great, but if they must choose, that's where value lies.

I teach them to value kindness and cooperation. Valuing connection in addition to success.

These things, I hope, will help give them a solid foundation to judge their own characters and this their self-worth.