KIDS ARE TREMENDOUS!
by
Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
and
Bob Kelly
Internationally acclaimed motivational speaker and author Charlie “Tremendous” Jones and award-winning author Bob Kelly combine their talents to present this charming look at childhood by some of history’s most famous personalities. Funny, poignant, illuminating—each quotation casts a bright light on those sparkling diamonds we call kids. Sometimes demanding, always questioning—kids are a constant source of joy to adults of all ages. More than simply a collection of quotations, Kids Are Tremendous! includes some sound advice on how to turn your children, grandchildren and other young people in your world into avid and lifelong readers.
Smashwords Edition
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Published on Smashwords by:
Tremendous Life Books
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Kids are Tremendous!
Copyright 2008 by Charles Jones and Bob Kelly
ISBN: 978-1-936354-23-8
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
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Table of Contents
Babies are bits of stardust blown from the hand of God. Lucky the woman who knows the pangs of birth, for she has held a star.
—Larry Barratto
A child is the root of the heart.
—Carolina Maria de Jesus
Out of the mouths of babes comes a lot of what they should have swallowed.
—Franklin P. Jones
Childhood is the world of miracle and wonder: as if creation rose, bathed in light, out of the darkness, utterly new and fresh and astonishing.
—Eugene Ionesco
5: Love and Praise: The Perfect Diet
Love your children with all your hearts…Praise them a lot. They live on it like bread and butter and they need it more than bread and butter.
—Lavina Christensen Fugal
Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best.
—Bob Talbert
Kids are always the only future the human race has.
—William Saroyan
Mothers
who raise
A child by the book
Can, if sufficiently
vexed,
Hasten results
By applying the book
As well as the
text.
—Evangelical Beacon
When Gloria and I got married and started our family, I thought God gave me children so I could teach them, but I soon learned that God gave me children so they could teach me!
—Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
The toughest thing about raising kids is convincing them you have seniority.
—Source Unknown
Gloria and I raised six kids, all boys—except four! The reason we had only six is because Gloria doesn’t like kids.
—Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
12: Parents: Providing Roots and Wings
There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots: the other wings.
—Hodding Carter
13: Girls: Little Bits of Heaven
A man who has only sons and who has never fathered a daughter has lost a little bit of Heaven on earth.
—Irish Proverb
14: Boys: No Experience Needed
One of the best things in the world is to be a boy; it requires no experience, but needs some practice to be a good one.
—Charles Dudley Warner
15: Grandkids: God’s Compensation
Grandchildren are God’s way of compensating us for growing old.
—Mary H. Waldrip
16: Youth: Vanguard of Tomorrow
Teenagers are the vanguard of tomorrow. They are a fresh breeze in a stale world.
—Dan Valentine
Never raise your hand to your children—it leaves your midsection unprotected.
—Robert Orben
Ah, the patter of little feet around the house. There’s nothing like having a midget for a butler.
—W.C. Fields
Children: God’s apostles, day by day sent forth to preach of love, and hope, and peace.
—James Russell Lowell
When my first grandson was still a young boy, I wrote this letter to share with him some of the wonderful life lessons I’ve been learning.
—Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
You are the same today as you’ll be in five years except for two things: the people you meet and the books you read.
—Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
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The selections in this book have been drawn from several hundred volumes in our personal libraries, and from other materials we have collected over many years, the sources of which were not always duly recorded. We have made every effort to give proper credit to the original authors of each selection, when known. In the event we have failed to acknowledge the correct source of any of this material, we sincerely apologize, and when such errors, if any, are called to our attention, we will make the appropriate corrections in future editions.
C.J. and B.K.
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By Charlie “Tremendous” Jones
One of the most Tremendous words in our vocabulary is “children.” Just the mention or the thought of children brings to mind so many beautiful memories. As I reflected on the observations so many others have made about children, as recorded in this book, I thought back to my own childhood.
As soon as I was able to walk and talk, I began learning to act grown-up. I’d put my feet in my father’s shoes, hold his pants up to my shoulders, and wonder, “Will I ever grow up?” As the years passed, I learned to act grown-up.
Then, when I was a young man, the grace of God revealed His love for me through His Son, Jesus Christ, and I began to live life all over again. This time, however, I didn’t need to grow up but rather to decrease and celebrate every day as one of God’s children.
It’s been said that “the mark of smallness is a childish act; the mark of greatness is a childlike spirit.” That’s what this book is all about. Here in its pages there’s something for everyone—to read, reread, memorize, realize and, especially, to share.
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Kids Are Tremendous!
Introduction
By Bob Kelly
Every human being since Adam and Eve, billions of us, began life in the same way—as children. Many of us have gone on to have children, grandchildren, and perhaps even great grandchildren, of our own. Often to our chagrin, we’ve discovered that the experiences of childhood did little if anything to equip us to raise children. As parents, we’ve known headaches and heartaches, as we’ve ministered to the wounded knees and wounded hearts of our precious charges.
These are small prices to pay, however, for the joy of loving and being loved by children. At times confusing, frustrating, irritating, demanding and questioning, they are also invigorating, challenging, imaginative and heart-warming. And, generally, they’re more than willing to forgive and forget the mistakes, even the awful ones, parents tend to make.
This is not a book of cute sayings by children but a collection of observations and advice about them made by hundreds of men and women over the past 3,000 years or so. In the following chapters, it covers such topics as infancy, training, communication, education, love, discipline, imagination and spirituality. There are the thought-provoking and the rib-tickling, the wise and the winsome, the delightful and the divine—more than 600 in all—enough to warm the heart of every reader.
Kids are tremendous and we trust every parent, grandparent, pastor, teacher, uncle, aunt and anyone else who has ever been a child, raised a child or tried to reason with a child, will enjoy these reminders of childhood, described by Eugene Ionesco as: “The world of miracle and wonder: as if creation rose, bathed in light, out of the darkness, utterly new and fresh and astonishing.”
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Chapter 1
Babies: Bits of Stardust
Babies are bits of stardust blown from the hand of God. Lucky the woman who knows the pangs of birth, for she has held a star.
—Larry Barratto
[Jesus said:] “A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.”
The Bible — John 16:21
Baby: an alimentary canal with a loud voice at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
Elizabeth I. Adamson
In every child who is born, under no matter what circumstances, and of no matter what parents, the potentiality of the human race is born again.
James Agee
When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.
James M. Barrie
The first handshake in life is the greatest of all: the clasp of an infant fist around a parent’s finger.
Mark Beltaire
Except that right side up is best, there is not much to learn about holding a baby. There are 152 distinctly different ways—and all are right! At least all will do.
Heywood Broun
I have never understood the fear of some parents about babies getting mixed up in the hospital. What difference does it make as long as you get a good one?
Heywood Broun
A baby is born with a need to be loved—and never outgrows it.
Frank A. Clark
As soon as I stepped out of my mother’s womb onto dry land, I realized I had made a mistake—that I shouldn’t have come, but the trouble with children is that they are not returnable.
Quentin Crisp
Babies are unreasonable; they expect far too much of existence. Each new generation that comes takes one look at the world, thinks wildly, “Is this all they’ve done to it?” and bursts into tears.
Clarence Day
Every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last.
Charles Dickens
Birth is the sudden opening of a window through which you look out upon a stupendous prospect. For what has happened? A miracle! You have exchanged nothing for the possibility of everything.
William M. Dixon
A child at birth has the capacity to become original. Or you can put him in a mold so that he will come out like everybody else.
Sylvanus and Evelyn Duvall
Here we have a baby. It is composed of a bald head and a pair of lungs.
Eugene Field
A man finds out what is meant by a spitting image when he tries to feed cereal to his infant.
Imogene Fry
Babies are such a nice way to start people.
Don Herold
The first home was made when a woman, cradling in her loving arms a baby, crooned a lullaby.
Elbert Hubbard