Look at the trust Baby Bird has in Bobby.  He could pinch his little head off in an instant...but Baby Bird knows he is going to be sweet and gentle with him.  We wouldn't take anything for him.   We wouldn't take anything for our children either...but there are people who are not like us...and they would.   * (See below) 

When we first got Baby Bird he was only 3 months old and didn't have his long tail and wing feathers. He was so cute. Bobby was wearing cowboy boots and he would hold his boot up to the cage and Baby Bird would try to sing and whistle. When he learned how to do that, everytime Bobby would stick the toe of his boot up there, Baby Bird would start singing and when he learned to "talk", he would say: "Give me sugar"...and he would "kiss" the toes of his boot. Since then he has learned lots of sentences. "What ya doing? What's your problem? Going to get a cup of coffee. Got to go to work, be back in a little while" and a few others.

Well he is 8 years old now and he still loves Bobby's boots. When he has them on...Baby Bird just follows them with his eyes. When he's sitting on his shoulder, he almost falls off looking down trying to see those boots.  Today when Bobby stuck his boot up to the cage he still did the same things he was 'trained' to do. He loves Bobby's boots so much that when he changes into his walking shoes, it upsets Baby Bird. I don't think any kind of "peer pressure" could make Baby Bird like loafers, house shoes, high heels or walking shoes better than he likes boots...that first item in his infanthood!

This started me to thinking about our children. If a little 3 month old cockatiel can be so influenced by a pair of boots...what about our children.

Those little dears, who come to us as a tiny bundle, pure and clean and with no heavy baggage of pre-conceived ideas...and they are like little sponges willing to soak up everything in their environment...and soon they learn to talk and to walk...and we have them as long as 18 years or more right under our roof.

How much more could we train and influence our little children, who can learn to converse with us and bond with us and have a natural affection for us and who can learn from the examples we set?  But Satan comes to us and says:  "...I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world...a good job, a step up on that corporate ladder...computers, the internet, a tv in every room,  several cars in your garage, a dream house...if you will just give me your children."  * And too many of us have said: "Okay."     (Wendell  Ingram's analysis , and so true.)                                             

I don't believe that any person can come into their lives and so influence them to the point that they forsake their values...if those first items in their lives  (mother and daddy)  do their jobs. So...where have we failed? At what point in time did we quit trying...and let  their teenage peers and the schools take over for us?