My name is Joyce Lipham-Taylor, age 88, the mother of seven successful adult children. I live in Texas and came from a family of seven brothers and sisters. I would like to give my advice to young parents that worked for my husband and me.
First, set an example by working hard yourselves. I rose early, cooked breakfast for my kids, and started teaching piano classes at 7 a.m. six days a week. My late husband, who ran a trucking company, also worked diligently to make a living. We never took a penny of welfare from the government. Our main goal had always been to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. We had family prayers and devotionals every night, after a hard day’s work.
Our kids found out that money comes from working hard and getting an education. The boys mowed lawns around our small town in West Texas, which led to being asked to do chores for the ladies. Our girls were also working, babysitting, and driving the older ladies around town and other places that they needed. Each of our kids was known to be on time and do excellent work.
In summary, my advice for young parents is to teach your kids how to work at a young age, manage their money, be on time at their jobs, get up early, eat good food (especially a nutritious breakfast), go to church, and give the first 10 percent of their earnings to the church.
Our children all have done well to this day. They’re faithful to God. They’ve provided for their growing families. They have thankful hearts.
The kids were honed, groomed, and prepared for adulthood. They all were in sports at school and learned discipline from the coaches. I’m so proud of them.
Our oldest son, a Vietnam veteran, is retired from trucking but still drives a school bus. Our eldest daughter is a mortgage banker. Another daughter is a regional banker in North Texas. Another daughter helped her husband with his Conoco dealership. A son owns and manages a trucking company; he and his younger brother played on the Daingerfield, Texas, football team, which won the state title, undefeated, and unscored-on in the 1980s. Our youngest boy is a chemical engineer. Finally, recently we lost our youngest daughter because of an autoimmune disease-induced heart attack. We’re so proud of them all.
On Saturday nights, when we still had all of our kids living with us, we often had kids visiting overnight who loved to practice gospel songs for Sunday church services.
I know these ideas on raising kids worked for me. I believe they'll work for other parents, too.
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Whatever job you have to do, do your very best. It may not be the work or the job you wanted at the time, but always do what you can be proud of.
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