Question of the Day

At the end of every one of my classes as school, I pose a question of the day for my students. The intended purpose is to find out if they actually understood what I wanted them to learn that day. It's a way for me to judge their knowledge and see if I need to reteach something the following day. So, I thought I would pose a question of the day for you today. Here it goes:

What is a personal characteristic that you are proud of when you think of yourself?

I texted this question to a group of girls tonight that I'm currently mentoring, and I got various answers. One girl had an answer right away--she was very "in tune" with herself. Another young lady texted me an answer that her mother had given her. A third girl couldn't come up with anything at first, and then when I didn't let her off the hook she relented and found something to write down.

I thought their responses were quite interesting and they mirror how many of us see ourselves. Some of us are pretty confident--we KNOW our good traits and our faults very well. We are open books, and what you see is what you get. Others of us define our worth and value from what others say about us. We look to the crowd to figure out who we are. And then there are those who see very little that is good in our lives. We tend to focus on the "glass being half empty" all of the time, and we may even dislike ourselves. For those folks in the last group, I think it is extremely important for us to point out their positive traits and encourage them daily. And that brings me to my second question of the day:

How often do you build others up?

Just by asking this question of my mentorees tonight, I could feel the excitement through the text messages. They WANTED to discover the good inside of them. And when I responded back in agreement or to suggest another trait that I saw inside of them, they ate it up! I can't wait until I get back together with these young ladies so I can talk to them about the positive traits I see in their lives. When was the last time we told the people around us why we hold them in high esteem? Can you find someone today to "build up" instead of tearing down? What would happen if we made a conscious effort daily to make another person feel good about themselves? What would the world look like if we all liked ourselves? I'll tell you--if we all liked ourselves, we would more freely be able to LOVE others, which is what kindness is all about in the first place.

Think about your positive traits today and find someone to encourage. It will be an endless cycle of positivity and kindness that you won't be able to break! Couldn't we all use more of that?