Character at the Speed of Light

Almost everything moves at the speed of light these days. A hundred years ago a handwritten note from New York to London took four weeks. Today, we can send digital content around the world in fractions of a second. We can even order just about anything from our living room couch and have it delivered to our front door overnight.

We’re so accustomed to immediate results that we expect it in our parenting as well. Our children make a mistake, we correct them once, then we expect an immediate and permanent change in their behavior.

The problem with that view is that it misses the primary goal of parenting: building character. Character takes time. Think of it this way: athletes learn to make the right moves by disciplining themselves. They don’t practice once. They practice over and over and over until their movements are infused into their character. They don’t have to think about doing the right thing. It becomes instinct.

That is the essence of parenting. Time is a critical factor. It takes time to raise a boy into a man, or a girl into a woman. It takes time for a child to learn life’s lessons by overcoming adversity. Physical, emotional, and spiritual development is a process, not a snap of the fingers.

If you’re a parent, be patient with yourself. Raising children takes place in the moment every day, but it’ll take years for their character to fully develop.