What to read after These Things I Wish?

Cherish the values of an earlier time, when household chores and simple pleasures -- not the latest video game or a new car at sixteen -- helped children to develop their character

When Paul Harvey read Lee Pitts's essay "These Things I Wish" on his nationally syndicated radio show, Paul Harvey News and Comment, listeners everywhere loved it, and it's become a classic that's been passed from parent to child, from friend to friend. Here, for the first time, Pitts's moving text is presented opposite beautiful illustrations in a book that is the perfect gift for parents and children of all ages.

Pitts writes that present-day parents have tried hard to make life better for their children -- but instead they've made it worse. What today's young people need are the things that Pitts wishes for them: hand-me-down clothes, leftover meatloaf, having to mow the lawn and do the dishes, punishment when they've done something wrong. . . . He also wishes that they may know the beauty of a mountain range, and the value of hard work and an education.

In plain yet beautiful language, Pitts helps us to envision a simpler time, when children weren't so overscheduled and spoiled with every consumer delight they could ever want. Self-sufficiency, humility, quiet wisdom, personal strength -- these are the virtues that are learned through challenge and adversity. These Things I Wish celebrates values from the past that are so necessary for our future -- the values we yearn for in our busy lives.