GOLDEN RULE FOR OWN CHILD

I grew up in Trenton, a west Tennessee town of five thousand
people. I have wonderful memories of those first eighteen years, and many
people in Trenton influenced my life in very positive ways. My football coach,
Walter Kilzer, taught me the importance of hard work, discipline, and believing
in myself. My history teacher, Fred Culp, is still the funniest person I've
ever met. He taught me that a sense of humor, and especially laughing at
yourself, can be one of life's greatest blessings.

But my father was my hero. He taught me many things, but at
the top of the list, he taught me to treat people with love and respect...to
live the Golden Rule. I remember one particular instance of him teaching this
"life lesson" as if it were yesterday. Dad owned a furniture store,
and I used to dust the furniture every Wednesday after school to earn my
allowance. One afternoon I observed my Dad talking to all the customers as they
came in...the hardware store owner, the banker, a farmer, a doctor. At the end
of the day, just as Dad was closing, the garbage collector came in.

I was ready to go home, and I thought that surely Dad
wouldn't spend too much time with him. But I was wrong. Dad greeted him at the
door with a big hug and talked with him about his wife and son who had been in
a car accident the month before. He empathized, he asked questions, he
listened, and he listened some more. I kept looking at the clock, and when the
man finally left, I asked, "Dad, why did you spend so much time with him?
He's just the garbage collector." Dad then looked at me, locked the front
door to the store, and said, "Son, let's talk."

He said, "I'm your father and I tell you lots of stuff
as all fathers should, but if you remember nothing else I ever tell you,
remember this...treat every human being just the way that you would want to be
treated." He said, "I know this is not the first time you've heard
it, but I want to make sure it's the first time you truly understand it,
because if you had understood, you would never have said what you said."
We sat there and talked for another hour about the meaning and the power of the
Golden Rule. Dad said, "If you live the Golden Rule everything else in
life will usually work itself out, but if you don't, your life probably will be
very unhappy and without meaning."

I recently heard someone say, "If you teach your child
the Golden Rule, you will have left them an estate of incalculable value."
Truer words were never spoken.