Last week, I attended two funerals, both men were in their 80s so in many ways it felt like a celebration of lives well lived. My daughter-in-law Elle lost her Grandfather, Desmond Barker, after a lingering illness. I was so impressed with his life. He accomplished amazing things! One of his daughters talked about the rules in their house. I was impressed that she knew, without a doubt, the rules that their family lived by. It also gave me pause to wonder what kind of rules we had in our home and would my own children be able to recite those rules? I’ll save our home rules for another blog but here are the rules that the Barker children lived with.
Rule #1 Take Care of Yourself. I loved this one because I think it’s so important that children know that if they take care of themselves they don’t have to worry about what others are doing- well most of the time. I think adults really need to remember this rule.
Rule # 2 Make Your Day Work. Ok, this needs a little explanation. No matter what kind of day you are having, you have to make it work by doing the best that you can
Rule #3 1 Wrong Doesn’t Make a Right. They used to say “2 wrongs don’t make a right” but then Elle’s Dad, Des said one day that “1 wrong doesn’t make a right” and it stuck. I think the idea here is that you need to change course if you’re going down the wrong path!
The speaker went on to say that these rules could apply to anything they were doing at their home and in their lives. What a great tribute to leave your children- a blueprint for dealing with life’s challenges!
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