Fathers, husbands, and men everywhere would be wise to realize that real success in life is not determined by career accomplishments, wealth obtained, educational institutions attended, awards won, or even the cars we drive and houses we own. While all of these things mentioned are certainly important, valuable, and should be sought after – real success must solely be determined by who we become, the people we help and serve, and the devotion to, rearing of, commitment towards, and time made for the most important relationships in life – our spouse, children, and family members. (more…)

Parenting, in many regards, is difficult. It requires work, persistence, and patience. The very word parenthood is synonymous with challenges, frustrations, and responsibility. However, parents everywhere will also collectively agree that parenthood is also the source of the greatest joy, satisfaction, happiness that life has to offer. All the work, responsibility, and even challenges are worth every effort and sacrifice. In fact, perhaps the reason why we experience so much happiness through parenthood is because we develop the most important attribute of life – that of unselfishness. Ironic that we actually find our lives through the losing of them!

Thankfully, I was fortunate enough to have two incredible parents – a father and mother who loved me, cared for me, taught me, disciplined me, and truly epitomized what successful parenthood is all about. While they were not perfect (although close), they did certain things that I feel every parent would benefit from knowing, and especially emulating. Below are listed (more…)

Each of us is exposed to and bombarded by – on a daily basis – an evil that is extremely enticing and appealing, so selfishly gratifying (temporarily), so completely unavoidably addictive, and so incredibly damaging to our lives, families, and society. It is a plague and modern day slavery that is slowly and subtly destructive, and yet it is justified by the supposed mass-popularity, innate natural passions within us all, and the wrongly assumed reasoning that participation in this evil is simply an expression of ‘freedom’ and ‘choice.’

Anyone addicted to pornography will certainly attest and declare that the fruits of this selfish, temporary self-gratifying evil, is anything but ‘freedom.’ Pornography is an industry that makes a few wealthy at the expense of destroying lives, tearing apart marriages and families, and essentially weakening the very foundation of our society.

And yet, one would naturally ask – ‘how can I avoid this evil when the majority of advertisements, websites, commercials, images, videos, TV shows, to the very clothes others wear (or do not wear), expose me to and entice me towards this very evil?’ (more…)

Your success in life is not determined by the education obtained, institutions attended, career accomplishments, awards won, or the wealth you acquire. Real success in life is solely determined on who you become, the character and attributes you develop, the people you help, and whether or not at the end of the day you were true to the most important priorities in life – namely: God & Family.

And yet our culture and society certainly do not proclaim that same message. From the media to our educational system, from our co-workers to our neighbors, and even from our peers to our own family members, the unfortunate message that most often gets communicated is that our inner character is secondary (if even considered) to the tangible accomplishments and material possessions we obtain when determining our success in life.

However, we should never assume that because (more…)

Parenting, in many regards, is difficult. It requires work, persistence, and patience. The very word parenthood is synonymous with challenges, frustrations, and responsibility. However, parents everywhere will also collectively agree that parenthood is also the source of the greatest joy, satisfaction, happiness that life has to offer. All the work, responsibility, and even challenges are worth every effort and sacrifice. In fact, perhaps the reason why we experience so much happiness through parenthood is because we develop the most important attribute of life – that of unselfishness. Ironic that we actually find our lives through the losing of them!

Thankfully, I was fortunate enough to have two incredible parents – a father and mother who loved me, cared for me, taught me, disciplined me, and truly epitomized what successful parenthood is all about. While they were not perfect (although close), they did certain things that I feel every parent would benefit from knowing, and especially emulating. Below are listed (more…)

One thing that our educational system fails to teach is financial literacy. As important as subjects such as humanities and biochemistry are, for example, the reality is that to the majority of people, these topics have very little real life application on a day to day basis. The study of compounding interest, building and protecting your credit, monthly budgeting, proper use of credit cards, and even retirement investing are unfortunately rarely mentioned (if even offered) in our curriculum. What makes the matter worse is the fact that companies, media, movies, and our very culture daily bombard parents and youth with countless advertisements and opportunities to spend, accumulate debt, obtain unnecessary material possessions, and satisfy the greedy nature within us all.

The solution to such a problem is certainly easier said than done. However, perhaps the real problem does not lie in the youth’s ignorance of finance related topics, or the bombardment of media influences; perhaps the real problem lies in the inability of parents to understand, teach, and exemplify the very principles our youth so desperately need to learn. And what is it that our youth absolutely must learn? Or perhaps better phrased – what is it that parents absolutely must understand, teach, and exemplify before we can ever expect our youth to do the same? (more…)

Unfortunately, these 6 conversations rarely occur because parents do not understand or believe the principles discussed. Thus, having these conversations with our children is secondary to the importance of parents first believing that these principles are true and important. However, every parent must speak to their children about these topics – and do it often! These are not one-time conversations, or even topics of conversation that should happen regularly; more importantly, they principles discussed in these conversations must become the very mentality and actions of the parents, which of course will hopefully result in our children developing these very same important actions and mentality. Our children must not only hear and know these things, but also believe them and thus live accordingly. (more…)

If there is one thing that every parent can agree on in regards to rearing and disciplining children, it is this: that it is very hard, extremely important, takes constant effort, and is of course rewarding and totally worthwhile. ‘Why’ we need to love, teach, and even discipline children is not questioned, it is the ‘how’ that causes confusion, disagreements, and where the true challenge lies.

Perhaps what is most important to keep in mind, at the outset, is that no two parents are alike. Likewise, no two children are alike. And everyone’s situation and circumstances are different. What may work for some, might not work for others. What is considered ‘right’ by most, may be seen as ‘wrong’ by a few. And that is perfectly fine! We thus need to stop worrying about what others say, do, or don’t do, and put forth effort and focus on trying to teach, raise, and discipline our own children the ‘right’ way according to our own beliefs, situations, circumstances, personalities, and different children’s needs.

However, with that said, I personally feel there are a few things that every parent should implement (more…)

The greatest challenge we will face in life – in fact, the very purpose of our existence – is to learn how to overcome the natural tendencies within us and to develop self-control and discipline mentally, physically, emotionally, socially, morally, financially, and spiritually.

The difficulty of this necessary task should suggest the importance of the effort – for all things worthwhile require great work, discipline, and persistence. It is important to remember that the laws that govern self-control and discipline are the very same laws that dictate and determine success – namely: desire, belief, commitment, an organized plan, daily action, learn from and not repeat mistakes, persistence, and to never give up!

The next and most important principle to understand and implement into our lives is (more…)

The negative impacts of the media, TV, movies, internet, and video games on our children are not only blatantly apparent, but ever-increasing. Without even going into the much more important effects of immorality, loss of values, violent behaviors, and engrained selfishness, the reality is that these overly-popular mediums are contributing to the loss of the essential attributes, activities, and abilities that all children need to develop.

Children need to play games much more than they currently are. Why? For their social, emotional, physical, and intellectual well-being – that is why! And it is the parent’s responsibility to ensure this happens. Unfortunately, we as parents can all agree that turning on the TV or a movie to act as a temporary ‘babysitter’ is certainly easier than the time, effort, and creativity required to play games with our child.

While I certainly understand there are positive things that do come from TV, movies, the internet, etc. – let’s not be ignorant to the fact that the pro’s are substantially less than the con’s when it comes to the entertainment the world provides. Rather, we as parents need to (more…)

It wasn’t too long ago that you would find children in the streets, yards, and sidewalks of neighborhoods pretending to be famous athletes, princesses, dinosaur hunters, moms playing house, or soldiers at war. Why is this not the case any longer? Unfortunately, the reality is that:

• There is an increased emphasis on early academics
• Physical and sexual predators have become far too common place
• People generally have become less social and neighborly
• After school programs consume too much of our children’s time
• TV, cell phones, internet, and video games certainly don’t help
• And there is an increased amount of constant supervision of children in urban environments

It is widely known among Child Development professionals that ‘creative play’ is necessary to form the foundation of intellectual, emotional, social, physical, and creative abilities necessary as children grow and develop. While is it obvious that the mediums of TV, movies, and the internet can certainly be a source of much good and education, the reality is most people use them simply as ‘baby-sitters’ rather than constructive tools. And yet, (more…)