One of the most important traits that I gained from my father has been his passion for people. Watching my father interact with people from his business throughout the years has shown me that he truly enjoys meeting people. I’m not sure my father understands the idea of “strangers.”
He truly enjoys meeting people, greeting others, and getting to know people from various backgrounds and various cultures. I can recall watching my dad spend 15, 20, to 30 minutes or more with customers in his store talking about all kinds of things in life. Much of the conversation never had anything to do with the service or item of interest in the business.
Conversations ranged from politics, home life, personal interests, hobbies, cultural issues of the day, to many other topics.
As a parent if you want your children to be successful in life you must model for them this one principle of having a kind and gentle personality with strangers. If you want your child to be a missionary you must model for them a love for people from all backgrounds of life. If you want your child to be a good witness of Christ your children need to see you loving people who are very different than you and your way of life.
Developing a pleasing personality is essential to developing healthy, mature, and balanced citizens, Christians, and husbands or wives. If a child grows up with a personality that is cold, withdrawn, rough, rude, or arrogant that child will be a failure in almost every area of life.
As a supervisor I’ve personally experienced the difference between those who have good personalities and those that do not have good personalities. It is by far easier to train a person for skills than it is to train them with good character, especially the character trait of a good personality.
Look at the life of Christ. Througout the gospels Jesus interacted with many people from all walks of life. He ate with sinners, with tax collectors, mingled with the poor, the rich, and conversed with the outcasts of society. He was a man with a pleasing personality.
Go to the Lord in prayer and ask him for ways that you can model a warm, caring, kind, and gentle personality to others so your children may learn what that means. Look for ways to invite people into your home to model this before your children. Find new ways to love others so your children can learn to love others and serve others.
Serving You,
Keith Sherlin; DD; Th.D
