Before I became a father, I was a son, a brother, and a nervous misguided child with no self esteem and no clue what life was all about. My father told me how big of a mess up I was and I soon came to believe him. My mother gave me love and encouragement and through her came the faith and belief that I was a good person with a good heart, and I was put on this Earth to do good things. My mother and her mother as well, had very strong standards and principles pertaining to loving each other and treating everyone with respect and compassion. Here are the 5 most important ideals that I grew up with and still apply to this very day. These are the values that shape our children's character. These are a set of principles that they too will one day give this gift to their own children. Let's start with Honesty.

HONESTY: The first and possibly the most important principle of them all. The later in life that a child understands the importance of being honest, the more likely they are to find themselves in many situations that are painful and discomforting. They must understand that there are no exceptions to the rule, such as white lies, withholding the truth, or not telling things the way they really happened. Honesty leads on into our second principle.

ACCOUNTABILLITY: It may sound harsh, but children must learn to take responsibility for their actions. Our kids have all the excuses in the world, although they forget that we were kids too and we've pretty much heard it all. They have to realize that there are very few legitimate excuses, but in general they need to apply our first principle, Honesty, and learn to tell it like it is. This is particularly important in our children's school work. They must understand that they are the ones who need to make sure their homework's done. This doesn't excuse us parents from participating actively with our children's school work, it only means that it's their obligation to know their homework assignment, to bring home their study book, to do ALL their homework, and to be sure to turn it in to their teachers. If they aren't fully adhering to our first principle of honesty, we can expect that our children will eventually fall into trouble at school, and as parents we must hold them accountable and not allow excuses or finger pointing. They messed up. They messed up and that's part of life. We make mistakes and we suffer the consequences, but we must teach them a valuable lesson is to be learned here.

RESPECT FOR OTHERS: When teaching our children important life principles, it is imperative to set an example of respect for others. Our children must understand that we are not to judge, criticize, label, disrespect, or hold prejudice towards any individual based on their looks, religion, financial status, beliefs or disabilities. This lesson must be taught by example, and should strictly be dealt with right away when these problems arise, and believe me they will arise. We must teach them that we are children of God and our purpose here is to love each other and to help one another. If you don