When my wife and I got married, we had a lot in common. But there was one area in which we were complete opposites. She lived for the future. I lived for today.

One area we knew had to become more future oriented was our parenting. What were our goals? Where did we want our children to be when they reached 18? This included spiritual and emotional maturity, academic development, and other areas of growth. Our children are still young, so we're still working on many of these areas, but it did make us change some things about the way we parent.

For instance, discipline changed. Instead of expecting perfection now, we set our goals on having mature 18 year olds. This allowed us to work more with our children and to be more patient with them. We could take the time to sit and talk with them instead of trying to force them into a behavior. It also allowed us time to look at their hearts, not just their actions.

Of course, we still have to discipline for inappropriate actions they do today. But our discipline is directed toward a goal. Not just correcting behavior. When they fail to make progress, we have a way to evaluate where they are, why they aren't making progress, and it gives us some direction on how to move forward.

Being future-oriented in our parenting had other effects as well. We look at their eating habits to see how those habits will affect them 20 or 30 years down the road. We evaluate how they spend their time. Are they working enough? Playing too much? Being silly at the wrong times? And we're able to train them much more effectively for the future in these areas.

If you live for today with your children, realize it will have consequences down the road. And those consequences will ultimately show how much you loved your children when they were young. Do you love them for today only? Or do you love them for the future as well?

It's time to sit down and evaluate your actions and what consequences they will have down the road. Then ask yourself, "Will my training methods produce fruit in my children 30 years from now -- fruit that shows how wise or foolish I was in their childhood?" If you don't like the answer, it's time to make changes -- long-term changes.

Feeling affection for kids is an enormous and venerable value that must be in every parent or guardian. If we profess that we love them, we will want to educate them at even an early stage in life. But we should note that what they grow to become is what they learn at their tender ages. If we want them to flip over the pages of journals, we are being right to educate them. In educating them, we should look for those journals that will personify the following characteristics.

Magazines that recognize and accept other people as they are and not as they think they should or ought to have been. Publications that denotes sound moral values. The children will want to copy these and that is the type of surrounding that makes them human.

Publications that tell of the truth with precision and accuracy and they have a reliable source of all what they publish. Most of today's problems are due to the lack of truth among men. The lies tellers were once kids and they might as well have been influenced by what they had also read. Keep in mind that truth is indispensable to every child. Truth is a source of warmth and harmony in the society.

Select for your children publications that that are selective in the words published. Remember that children will want to know any strange words and will want to use these words wherever they think feasible. Publications that use refined words are preferable because there are situations where the wrong words may be used to convey the right message. Any prudent publication should not dodge from using the right words where applicable. For example, there is not a word that you can use to refer to HIV/AIDS rather than the use of the word itself.

Decide on publications that uphold opinion, that always say, "in my opinion'. Avoid opening your children to magazines that force their thoughts on people. A magazine is a paper that you want to read about news and ideas of others. It is not something that you will want to hear people continually telling you of what was, is and will be. Everything of yours can be taken away, but your mind/conscience remains yours. Do not allow your kids to grow up with the notion that whatever they conceive is nothing but the truth.