The Charlie Brown and Lucy Story in Real Life
Reading about Charlie Brown and Lucy caused me to remember teaching my son to say something nice to a person or say nothing at all. When Darin was 8 years old, for some reason he didn't like the little girl across the street and one day I heard him saying unkind things to her in the yard, like, "Get out of here. We don't want to play with you!" He and I had a little talk afterwards and I told him that I was inviting her mother over for coffee and if she brought Becky, he would have to say something nice to her or spend the time alone in his bedroom. When Becky and her mom came to the door, Darin and I answered. The two kids stared at each other for what seemed like a long time. I squeezed my son's hand and out came the words, "I like your buttons!" which seemed to work. :-)
To this day, we laugh about that. In fact Darin is now nearly 50 years old and still, if he's talking about a person in a negative or critical way, I can look at him a certain way and he'll stop speaking and say, "OK, He has nice buttons!" We bust out laughing, but I realize, that that simple lesson long ago has caused him to stop and think if he begins to put someone down or be overly critical to look for something he can appreciate or compliment. And he really does look beyond the buttons!
Rhea Zakich
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