Take My Hand

Take My Hand

Author: Devon Mitchell

Stand still and look all around you. What do you see? Parents, kids, grandparents, teachers, counselors all going about their days hoping to accomplish something. But are they? Can you hear what they are saying to each other? Are they really listening to what the other person is saying? Being a parent or even an educator requires work, time, effort, patience and understanding. Believe it or not kids, it requires the same from you if you are going to choose the right path and want to be successful. Actions speak louder than words and people often judge you by the way you look, dress, react and behave in situations where you interact with others. Author Devon Mitchell begins this Simple Guide to Success from Child to Adult by applying what he learned at an early age, the tough situations he encountered, dealing the consequences meted out by his parents and hopefully imparting to everyone what he learned to make each and everyone one of us better adults or more successful children. Sharing his failures, successes and trying to explain to the reader how to eliminate failure from the lives of your children. Relating how he often took the wrong path or roads, the frustrations he faced and overcame we learn more about the author and how we can emulate and teach others what he has learned. By learning from his mistakes the author understood more clearly the roadblocks, obstacles and hindrances blocking his way to success. His children and their mothers endured a lot of pain but now he is trying to rectify that and give them a better life. At 37 he has five children and he had accomplished a lot. Learning that he has to move forward and not travel the roads in the past he has chosen to become successful in his own right.

Success is not easy. The choices and decisions you make will determine your level of success. Children need help in planning their actions and they need to understand the consequences attached to them when they falter and do the wrong thing. Many parents do not structure the lives of their children and teach them how to go from one point to the final endpoint and understand the long-range goals and not just what happens on a daily basis. There are different stages that children need to go through are outlined in Chapter One. From infancy, child, Young Adult, Grown Man, each person has to move to the next stage while acquiring the qualities for success. Whether the work you perform or choose to do and the decisions you make in each stage, your successes and failures come along with you to every new milestone. Your accomplishments in each stage are critical to your success. A critical point made by the author is that applying effort and how to achieve success requires that you think about your actions before the situation arises. You should have an idea of what you will do when difficulties arise beforehand.

Chapter 2 discusses and outlines his program. Defining success as begin experienced differently by different people. Depending on what each person wants to achieve hinges on their level of success. Setting goals is important and reaching them means finally “enjoying the fulfillment of a goal you have set and watching it develop from an idea,” that you have achieved. Next he defines interdependence as a dynamic of being mutually and physically responsible to “ and sharing a common set of principles with others.” He elaborates on other forms of success throughout the chapter and continues with several important points. First, be aware of your position and do not take advantage of it. Your actions will show others what you think of them and that is vital to getting along with them. If being successful means hurting, destroying and harming others what you think is success is not. If your success come at the cost of others and deflate them are you truly successful? The author then refers to examples of success from the Bible. He closes the chapter with an important point. You hold the key to your success and the traits you are taught come from your parents. You are born with them. Parents are supposed to be responsible fro your growth, development and welfare until you can take responsibility on your own. Parents, you are responsible for 100 percent of the parenting required to hopefully teach your child values, morals, importance of hard work, making the right decisions and more. The guidance you give a child at young age often reflects the guidance you received. Read the rest of the chapter to learn more and the final valuable definition of the Role of parenting.

What Parents do not Know is the focus of Chapter 3. A question asked as the start of this invaluable chapter is, “ Is it fair or right for parents at anytime to imply or overtly place all of the blame on a child for not realizing his potential as an adult?” Great Question! “ Who is to be blamed for the child’s failure?” The author elaborates by giving detailed examples that show how outside factors contribute to the failures systematically over time with no one doing anything about it. He continues by stating that parents need to remember their connection to their children and their obligation to taking care of them responsibly adding that parents and this is vital, must take their jobs seriously. He then continues to explain that it’s “ a child’s duty to live by his parents’ rules. How parents need to monitor teens, parents must examine themselves; they need to be concerned about their child and mindful of their behaviors. There are many salient points made in this chapter including children “are to obey their parents and have fun living.” The rest you will learn as a parent and child together when you read Chapter 3. Chapters 4 and 5 focus on important actions and who benefits from you actions beginning with this statement, “ every action we take starts with a desire to accomplish a task, and the purpose of the task, is to move forward from one point to the next.” He elaborates and gives many examples throughout the chapters. He includes teaching your children, training and instructing them, the Direction you want them to take and of course the challenges along the way. A Major question: Page 53 will help both parents and children create a plan that will focus your directions. These questions are clearly stated and defined. Chapter Five Who Benefits From Your Actions, followed by Chapter 6 which is the core of this program I feel: Communication. Defining communication on page 63 and explaining how communication impacts on your emotions and reactions is the focal point of this chapter. Read pages 67-68 to learn the definition and the 9-point explanation that follows. The first I feel in my opinion is the downfall at times of some parents when the author states: Giving your child just enough and not giving them everything they want. “ Instill manners in the child. A child can never bee too polite.” Most important. Throughout Chapter 7 you learn the importance of naming your child the right way, in 8 What happens when a child rebels. This crucial chapter and many parents experience the frustration of a rebellious teen. In this chapter the author explains why teens and children rebel beginning with some notice that everything is not going their way. Some refuse to listen, go to school and follow the rules. The author states to focus on what is important which is not to push back in response to the rebellion. Read pages 75-76 to learn more. He includes viable short- term solutions that will lead to long term solutions and hopefully successful outcomes. Chapter 9: Focuses on: They Live to Do What they Learn which incorporates helping children succeed followed by Chapter 10: What is your Destiny? Throughout the book the author focuses on different solutions to create success. The training and guidance parents received as children they need to impart that in a positive way. Children need to be responsible and manage their own actions, which require Commitment and hard work. Author Devon Mitchell relates his real life experiences that led him to writing this book. Fathering children with different women and making mistakes, raised in poverty with a family of 8 children, he hopes devotes his life to helping others. He includes motivators, which are reasons we have to live each day and accumulate achievements for that day to foster success. He also defines motivators as ideas and the smallest part of a goal. Chapter 13 Commitment, which can be long or short-term depending upon the amount of time, required to attain what you want. But, to me without the next work Confidence you will not succeed.

As an educator I have to agree that Chapter 14 says quite a bit as it deals with Why Education is Necessary and the power of knowledge. Next and foremost is Social Interactions and monitoring your child’s activities, who they are friends with, watching out for peer pressures, and knowing where they are going at all times. Read pages 151-158. The remainder of the book focuses on the Church, Responsibilities and Chores, Recreation, Children’s Language and Manners and Speaking the Truth. Chapter 20 says it all in one line: Treat Your Child With Love! Finally Sex Education and Influences, How Does your child Spent their Time? “ Do you want to emulate your Parents?” I did and still do. My best teachers were my parents and grandparents that taught me the rules, respect, manners and the discipline I needed to focus on my responsibilities in school leading to be a dedicated educator as an adult.

Demons or Problems and Extending Love and How money affects your Life round out the rest of the book. On pages 252- 253 the author created a list of the most salient points that sum it all up for you. Beginning with “ Consider what you need to take before you act. Followed by 23 valuable points to remember to be a success. So take this book and share it with you whole family. Read it together and discuss the many chapters and lessons learned. Respect each other, listen to what your children are saying and of course point 6 School is the place for a child to be. Use what this outstanding parent and author learned to make his life better, the lives of his family and so many others.

Fran Lewis: reviewer