As parents, we desperately want to be proud of our children, but perhaps our first concern should be making them proud of us.

After a book I had written received an award, the publisher sent me a roll of gold stickers designed to grace the book’s covers. When my 8-year-old daughter saw them, she asked to have a few, with no idea what they represented. They took their place next to the cartoon-character stickers on the door of her room. She cared a lot more about my willingness to share them than what they stood for.

It is not our accomplishments that influence our children, but our character. It is not what we do but who we are that counts with them. Our children—whether toddlers, teens, or young adults—are more impressed by the tone of our voice than by the size of the contract we landed at work. They care more about how well we listen than how well we dress. It is the moral choices we make, not the championships we win, that produce that elusive quality called respect.

One version of Proverbs 17:6 says, “Parents are the pride of their children.”

Let’s ask the Lord to make us parents of whom our children can be proud.