Vow #9 - Each Night I Will Examine My Deeds of the Fading Day

My wife and I developed a tradition with our children while they were growing up. We had this thing where every night as we sat down for dinner, we would ask our four kids, “Okay, So what was your good thing today, and what was your bad thing?”

The kids hated it because it forced them to think and talk when all they wanted to do was chill and eat. But it was a really good thing to do. We almost always ended up with some pretty lively conversations. In our house, we kept the lines of communication open as much as possible and tried to get our kids to think about complex issues as well as the simple day to day of life. As much as the kids complained about it, I firmly believe that when they are parents, they will do the same thing with their kids!

Now that I look back on it, I see that what we were doing, was “examining the deeds of our day”, without even realizing that we were doing it at the time. I recommend this practice for everyone because only by carefully weighing the progress and the problems of our journey, will we be able to create a diary for today and a textbook for tomorrow.

Watch your thoughts; they become words.

Watch your words; they become actions.

Watch your actions; they become habits.

Watch your habits; they become character.

Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.