10 Hard Truths I don't Want to Tell My Kids

I love the brothers from the Creative Minority Report blog. (Their link is on "My Little Linkdom" over on the right margin.) 

Here's one of them who boldly goes where few parents have gone before...

10 Hard Truths I Don't Want to Tell My Children But Have to Anyway

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by Matthew Archbold Sunday, August 19, 2012 4:07 PM Comments (5)

10) Some people will treat you indifferently. And that'll hurt you more than if they went out of their way to hurt you. It doesn't mean you're not special. It just means that they've forgotten how to see how special people are.

9) As special as you are, you're not more special than others. God loves you. I love you. But that doesn't mean the world revolves around you. It doesn't. The world was full of heartache and smiles before you got here and smiles and hearts will go on breaking long after.

8) People who work in drive-thrus get the order wrong. I don't know why but it's about as consistent a rule as rock stars and overdoses.

7) Oh, your favorite bands break up. And it seems the more awesome the band is the quicker they break up. The terrible ones linger on forever or reunite often. Spandau Ballet is currently touring. You don't know who they are and if I do my job as a parent you never will.

6) Suffering is part of this life. As much as I'd like to protect you from this, I can't. I may even be the cause of it sometimes. But it's part of life and good can come out of it. I'll hate watching you go through it but I'll be proud of how you get through it.

5) Loving someone doesn't mean they'll love you back. Just try not to make too much of a fool of yourself over it.

4) You're going to die. You will. But trust in Christ's promise that you will live forever.

3) Rooting for sports teams is simply another avenue to invite heartbreak into your life. I've been incredibly lucky in that I've seen my NY Rangers win the Stanley Cup, Notre Dame win a national championships, the Mets win the World Series and the Giants have won three since I really started paying attention to sports. That's actually really lucky but that's about 120 sports seasons and 6 championships. That means 114 times I'm left screaming at the television, admonishing coaches, and yelling about biased referees. That's not a good rate of return. But you'll probably do it anyway. The good news is that some of the happiest people I know are Cubs fans and some of the most miserable are Yankees fans. It doesn't make sense but it's true.

2) The SAT's matter a lot as to which college you'll get into. But which college you got into stops mattering two years after you start working.

1) The easy way usually isn't the right way. I wish it were different but taking the hard way really does build character. It's a funny thing about character. It usually builds when you're not focused on yourself. And a strong character makes the hard way a lot easier to bear.

There's a lot more I don't want to tell you but you'll learn soon enough. Life has a way of teaching you whether you want it to or not.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/matthew-archbold/10-hard-truths-i-dont-want-to-tell-my-children-but-have-to-anyway#ixzz245RqF8Yb