When Sir Archibald Southby questioned Randolph Churchill’s war record on the floor of Parliament, he hadn’t meant anything personal. In fact, right afterward, he tried to shake Winston Churchill’s hand, intending to explain it away as just politics.
No such thing existed to the Churchills.
“Do not speak to me,” Winston Churchill told the man coldly. “You called my son a coward. You are my enemy. Do not speak to me.”
Now, Randolph Churchill was not perfect, but that didn’t prevent his father from standing up for him, from having his back. Nor should it ever prevent us. Winston Churchill’s own father had not supported or believed in his son. Winston, deciding to do better, would not make that same mistake. He backed his son. He fought for him. He let Randolph know he could always be counted on.
We have to do the same. Our kids are going to screw up, but they need to know we’ll never write them off. Our kids need to know that we’ll take their side, that we’ll fight for them, that we’ll never let anyone wrongly abuse or attack them without hearing from us about it.