Fathers

Father’s Day will be here in a few days. I got to thinking about fathers and what they represent in a family. According to the dictionary, a father is the male parent. He has many roles to fulfill: provider, protector, instructor, trainer, commander, corrector, nourisher. The list could go on and on, but you can get the general idea what their role in life should be.

I remember growing up thinking my dad could do no wrong and could basically walk on water if he wanted. When I was little I would sit on his lap and we would talk and play and I would tell him I would marry him when I grew up. I realized as I got older that that was not possible or even legal, but I also came to the conclusion I wanted to marry someone "like my father." I believe I did that. I married a wonderful man who is a super father to our four boys. He has set a good example for all of them to follow. He has not only been a good father, but a great husband, which is hopefully the model they will follow when they marry.

I was fortunate to get to be a stay-at-home mom while our kids have grown up. Hubby did not want me working and sticking our kids in daycare. Even though our youngest just graduated from high school, he does not want me to have to work outside the home. So thank goodness for the Internet and my online business! He has been an excellent provider as a husband and father. He has worked at the same job for nearly 26 years doing shift work. We added on to and remodeled our house ourselves to give each of the boys their own room to enjoy while they still lived at home. He has taught the boys a lot about construction and then encouraged them to go to the technical college where he went in order to gain more knowledge in that trade – which they have done. He is interested and involved in what the boys are doing and was a faithful supporter of them for 3 ½ years in their training to obtain their first-degree black belts in Tae Kwon Do. He has also been their Christian mentor and example since they were very little. I remember several of the boys having to write a paper for school about their hero. And guess who it was they wrote about? Their dad.

Fathers keep the family linked together and make the world go round. I feel sorry for those who have grown up without a father in the picture. Little boys need them to have a buddy or a hero to look up to. Whey they get to be teenagers, the dads have usually lost that status, but it made great memories for dad while their little boys were growing up. Little girls need their daddies in order to know what to look for in a husband years down the road. They have a way of wrapping their dad around their little fingers and before dads know it, they are telling the preacher they are giving their little girl to the man of her dreams. My husband and never had any little girls, but I know giving a daughter away at the wedding would have been really hard on him. He is not an overly emotional guy, but something like that would choke him up and cause very moist eyes.

I have two plaques hanging side by side in our bedroom. One says "A mother is a person who can take the place of all others, but whose place no one else can take." The other one says "Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a daddy." Both sayings are so true. Do not forget to wish your dad a Happy Father’s Day, but most of all, tell your father (and mother) that you love them. If it was not for them you would not be here! Plus, we never know from one day to the next how long they or we will be around to tell them "I love you," and once someone is gone it is too late.

Author: Linda Dougherty
Specializes in working with people to show them how to market effectively to earn money online.

http://www.internettowealth.com/

Decisions, Decisions

Have you ever heard the phrase "The decisions you make today determine where you will be tomorrow."? The mind is such an awesome tool. For some reason we believe and follow what and where it tells us. This can be a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing. A person’s attitude plays a big role in where they end up in life. People with a positive outlook tend to make good things happen in their life. Those with a negative attitude look for the bad in every situation and grumble and gripe because it is that way. A good phrase to keep in mind to deep you on track in thoughts and vocalization is "Positively NO negative!"

So with the attitude then comes the decisions that we make in our lives. It is our decision every day when we get out of bed if we are going to have a good or bad day. God gives us all the same day, but it is up to each of us how we decide to us it. In all honesty, we all have a bad day now and then. But what we do with it is determined by that attitude. This can put to play the phrase, "If life hands you lemons – make some lemonade!" That is just a way of taking a negative factor and making a positive situation out of it.

Making decisions is something that begins as toddlers. We started by deciding which food we did or did not like. We decided which toys we did or did not want to play with on a particular day. As we got to be teenagers, we decided which clothes or hairstyle we did or did not like. Our friends were also our decision – sometimes to our parent’s dismay. As we approached adulthood, decisions became much more important and complex. What to do after graduating from high school? What to pursue as a career or job? Who we want to marry and spend our life with? Where we live and what house we want to buy? How many kids we want and how we are going to discipline and raise them? At the time we are faced with making decisions, we may not consider all the consequences that go along with them. That is a lot of times what makes what we think was a good decision turn into a bad one. Just as good decisions can lead to success, bad ones can ultimately lead to defeat.

When growing up, I can remember kids in school who, if they could not make up their mind about something, would start in with the "eenie meenie miney moe" chant. My kids did that in their younger years too. I haven’t been around a lot of that age of kids for some time (my youngest just graduated from high school), but I am sure that it is still a well-used chant for indecisiveness. As a kid, it is used from picking a certain choice of food to picking who is going to be on your team to play a game. What memories!

As an adult then, many decisions have to be made that can ultimately determine where we end up in life. With much more seriousness, using that famous school yard chant is probably not the best choice for making up your mind about something in adulthood. According to the dictionary, a decision is the determination to follow a course of action. So once a person has determined to do something, they need to stick to it with diligence. There are times that no matter how hard a person strives to accomplish something that it just will not work. That is one of those life ‘lemons’, but with a little sweetener, lemonade can be made if for nothing else than to give us experiences. Many times if people do not see an immediate positive result from a decision, they will automatically think that it was the wrong one.

I have been involved in several direct selling and online business opportunities. None of those worked out because of various reasons, but I did learn several things in the process. I made lemonade out of the lemons! I then knew what I was and was not looking for in an online business, and it has helped me achieve that success I was looking for. One of my requirements was to be on a team that has mentors who offer online training and are available by phone or email if you have problems or questions – and I have found that. My decisions of today are determining where I will be tomorrow. Well, I think I will go have a pop. Diet Coke or Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi? Hmmmmm….eenie meenie miney moe…….

Author: Linda Dougherty
Specializes in working with people to show them how to market effectively to earn money online.
www.InternetToWealth.com