What’s inside that’s sure to come in handy one day?
I love backpacks. I find them very practical to carry all kind of stuff while keeping both hands free. My backpack carries many of my personal items and doubles as my mobile on-the-go-office. My backpack serves me well not only for my everyday needs, but also as a great “friend” when traveling for business or pleasure. It can do a good job whether I am traveling by plane, train or car; it can hide away easily under a boardroom table or survive the heat and salty water of a sandy beach.
When shopping for a backpack, I look for separate pockets to help keep my things organized and easily accessible. I also look for the quality of the workmanship and special features like water repellent, light weight construction, and extra compartments. The more features, the better.
Moms and Dads usually help their children in their early days with their school backpacks. Everything goes in: books, notepads, pens, pencils, laptop, or tablet, and of course, a lunch box, with snacks and a drink.
Can we use the analogy of a backpack to demonstrate what things we can put in our children’s life backpack so when they grow up and need some advice along their life journey, they can look into their backpack and see if Mom and Dad packed in an answer? Why not?
Here are seven important things that need to go into our children life backpack:
- Learning to make good choices and good decisions by thinking about the consequences of one’s choice.
- Learning to set and adjust priorities throughout life’s seasons.
- Learning to manage money matters in a wise manner and learning to save for a rainy day.
- Learning to be responsible and accountable for their own actions while setting appropriate boundaries.
- Learning to keep ones commitments and promises when it is convenient and inconvenient.
- Learning to own their attitude, keep it positive in times of adversity, and never give up on their dream(s).
- ... and my favourite number seven, is learning to do everything in love.
Extending the school backpack content with these seven points for our children’s life journey is a good investment. These seven points will for sure come in handy in anyone life journey. Best of all, when we get a tough question one day from our son or daughter, we can respond by “did you check your backpack?” The answer may be already there.
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