To be Happy like Mom and Dad

Last week, I had lunch with a new friend who boasted about the 23 grand and great-grandchildren that he had. He is an active, vibrant man who runs a healthy small business and has had an impressive corporate career. I was surprised that he was old enough to have great grandchildren.

“Well, my kids all got married by the time they were 20”, he told me. “In fact, when the youngest one decided to get married at 19, I had to ask these kids why all five of them had been in such a rush to get married.”

Fascinated, I asked him what the reason was. “They wanted to be happy, like their mother and me,” he said simply.

Can you imagine any higher compliment as a parent? To have lived a life that demonstrated a love so strong, a happiness so genuine, that your children want the very same thing in their lives? To have made your children feel so loved that they want to continue that love in their own family as soon as possible?

I looked into the eyes of this jolly man and asked him how he had done it. So humble, he responded, “I married a woman who is a wonderful mother and an excellent companion.” After fifty years of marriage, he chose to see the good and the beauty in his wife. I suspect she felt the same about him and that that is how they both felt about their children. And, thus, love and happiness grew.

Ah, if Robert and I can live the kind of love, respect and appreciation that will make our children say, “I want to be as happy as you”. That will be a life well lived!

Question to Ponder: How do you demonstrate your love and happiness? How happy would the children in your life say they thought you were? How can you be a better example of love and happiness?