Nov. 16: Be Your Children’s One Percent

Football coach Lou Holtz once noted, “Eighty percent of people don’t care about you one way or the other; 19 percent of people hope you fail.  The other one percent is your family.”

These thoughts, paraphrased in Jake Frost’s column in The Catholic Moment, might read rather negatively on the surface, but Frost emphasizes that small but significant one percent, the family who loves you unconditionally.  This love, he advises parents, must be expressed to your children at a young age.

Frost cites an incident when his two-and-half-year old daughter Liz was snubbed by two girls on the playground.  He knew of no other way to make Liz feel better than to simply be there for her.  “Kids need to know they really matter,” Frost declares. “We do that for our kids in a million ways: listening, being open to interruptions, foregoing nights out to instead spend time with our little ones.”

Be your children’s one percent, as your Heavenly Father always is for you and all His earthly offspring.

It is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.  (Romans 8:16)

Father, may we take comfort in the constancy of Your love.