The Kindness of Example

"Example is not the main thing in influencing others.  It is the only thing."
― Albert Schweitzer

I believe in thank you notes.  I do not always write as many as I would like and I feel as though I am always woefully behind on my social correspondence.  But I truly believe that writing a note by hand to thank someone who has given me a gift, invited me to something or done something special for me is the least I can do to acknowledge the person's thoughtfulness.  And the truth is I actually like writing them.

I have shared this belief with my children and I try to get them to thank the people who give them gifts.  The thank you notes don't always happen, and we need to try harder, but I think they know it's important -- at least to me.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a big assist in the thank you note department.  One of my children's teachers sent a lovely handwritten thank you note to my daughter for the Christmas gift that we had given him.  The present was a baked good, certainly nothing extravagant.  (Just before the holidays, I wrote about the impact that his effusive verbal thank you had on my daughter.)  This teacher's note serves as an example to my daughter about thoughtfulness, about good manners, about kindness.  A mother can talk, talk, talk, but there is nothing like the kind example of a well-respected teacher.