Words of Wisdom from Grandma Udall

Well, just real quick to preface this, my Grandma Udall was just recently diagnosed with stage three cancer or adenocarcinoma of the lung. She has been in and out of the hospital because she is having a hard time eating. A: It hurts to eat, and B: She's always nauseous from the treatments. Anyway, my Uncle came down and interviewed she and my Grandpa about different sections of their lives, so we could have their life stories. Here is a wise excerpt from the

"Parenting" portion of her interview.

"Besides Ken's advice about always treating kids with respect, as if each of them was Sister Kimball in my home, I made up my own advice later on. That is that if kids do something like stumble over a rock, they didn't mean to stumble over the rock. I've seen people berate their kids for stumbling over a rock, in a matter of speaking.  Number one, they didn't mean to do it.  They're the ones that got hurt and they'll remember to watch for the rock the next time.  You don't have to say a word except just to hug them and comfort them. I think that would be true in nearly every case.  Even if they're doing something naughty, you just love them and tell them you're sorry and want to help.  Don't give them a lecture; it doesn't do a bit of good.  They don't want to hear a lecture.  They want comfort.  (emotional)  I'm sorry, I cant quit crying today."

"We had an old table out here on the back porch and it haunts me that when Trevor was about 12, he went out to saw something and when he sawed the board, he also sawed the table.  (crying) I went out and got mad at him.  What a stupid thing for me to do.  I hope I never did that again.  Marcie now has the table and she thinks it's wonderful because it's old.  It's her dining room table, even with the sawed off edge.  I hope Trevor has forgiven me."

Trevor, is my cousin who died in a car crash when he was 18 (for those of you who don't know). I wept when I read this, and I have been pondering and reflecting on it all day. I just think how right she is and what good advice this is. I can remember times in my life even when I was younger when I yelled at a younger sibling for something so unimportant....and my heart aches. All day today I've made a resolution to be slower to anger, and quicker to kindness. Hooray for my grandmother's advice.