Children see. Children do.

Isn't is so true that kids mimick everything we do? Just this past Sunday Cori (I think he's about 5 years old) was sitting by me in church. In an attempt to entertain him and keep him quiet, I was doing things like writing names on the paper that he could copy, making ships and hats out of paper, etc.

Out of habit, I wrote my name and underlined it. I had also written Cori's name as well (without the underline). I handed him the paper to write for a while. Tiffany (a college student) was sitting on the other side of me. She nudged me to point out that as soon as Cori had added his last name to the page, he went back and underlined his name just like I had. His actions were real subtle, but it was obvious that he was trying to be just like me. He then took a paper and, once again, very subtly, began trying to fold the paper in the same way I had. He never asked me any questions. It was just obvious that he was really thinking hard about how I had folded my paper and made it into a boat.

Kids and teens watch what we do...whether we want to believe it or not. They see us when we least expect it. Are we expecting as much out of ourselves as we do of them? What are we teaching them...through our actions and our words?

Are we walking our talk??