John Mark Falkenhain - What Really Matters?: A Kids Guide to Whats Really Important in Life

What REALLY Matters? A Kids Guide to Whats Really Important in Life Br. John Mark Falkenhain, O.S.B. Illustrated by R. W. Alley Abbey Press To my nephews and niece, Caleb, Alex, and Chloe, who REALLY matter! A Message to Parents, Teachers,
and Other Caring Adults One of the most challenging and yet important tasks of parenting and fostering younger generations is passing on our values to children while also allowing young people, as they grow, to form their own sense of what is important. As adults influencing children, we might be tempted to follow children around, labeling for them at every turn what is important and what is not.

This is futile, of course, and we would quickly become exhausted and confused trying to sort out for ourselves what is important versus kind of important or very important. Before teaching kids what REALLY matters, we must have a fair grasp on that ourselves! In this book, which aims to offer something to both children and adults, I propose that what REALLY matters are those things that we and others cannot live without, and those people whom we love. The end result is that each of us REALLY matters because we are loved, if not by someone close by, then by God. It is one of our human conditions saddest phenomena that some children and adults feel that they do not matter because they have suffered abuse, neglect, or other forms of human cruelty. One of the greatest ways of ensuring that your child, grandchild, student, or loved one will develop a healthy sense of what REALLY matters, is to love them and teach them to love others. Br.

John Mark Falkenhain, O.S.B. What REALLY Matters? S omething matters when it is important. Think of some of the things that are important to you: your baseball glove, your favorite game, your bicycle, or the doll your grandmother gave you. Y ou know something is importantthat it matterswhen you dont want to give it away. We tend to be extra careful with things that matterwith things that are important. We would be sad if we lost them. Sometimes Things Are Important
to Others S ome things might be important to other people, even if they dont matter to you. Sometimes Things Are Important
to Others S ome things might be important to other people, even if they dont matter to you.

Your mother might say, Be careful with that book. Your grandmother gave that to me when I was a little girl and it is my favorite book. That means it matters to her, even if you dont see whats so special about it. S ometimes we accidentally hurt other people because we dont understand that something is important to them. If you accidentally ruin your brothers baseball glove by leaving it out in the rain, he will probably be very hurt and upset. What We Think Matters
Can Change A s people grow up, different things become important and begin to matter more than others. What We Think Matters
Can Change A s people grow up, different things become important and begin to matter more than others.

When people are children, certain toys, games, and collectionslike dolls or baseball cardsare important and matter a lot. F or grown-ups, cars, money, clothes, and houses can matter a lot. Grown-ups may have worked very hard for these things and so they are important, too. They matter. How Do We Know What
REALLY Matters? L ots of things matter, but some things REALLY matter. How do we know what those things are? O ne way of knowing if something REALLY matters is if we cant live without it.

F ood really matters, and water really matters because we cannot live without them. That is why it is importantREALLY importantthat we help those people around us who dont have enough food to eat or water to drink. T here are other things that REALLY matter that we dont always think about. For example, trees REALLY matter because they help make our air clean to breathe. And our houses and homes REALLY matter because they protect us from the rain and the cold. Remembering What Matters S ometimes we forget that things like food, water, trees, and houses REALLY matter, and so we waste them or forget to take care of them. Remembering What Matters S ometimes we forget that things like food, water, trees, and houses REALLY matter, and so we waste them or forget to take care of them.