When our son graduated from high school, the mother of one of his friends took me aside amid the camera flashes and said she wanted to talk to me about him.

I was pretty sure his class had graduated without the kind of pranks that had made headlines two years before, when seniors arrived at school with lifelike weapons which, although they discharged only large amounts of water, were singularly insensitive on the heels of a rash of school violence nationwide. I'm ashamed to say that potential pranks flickered through my mind, ashamed because this mother's very next words were, "I just want you to know that your son knows his values—and he acts on them.

Only days before, someone had tried to convince me that values can't be taught to children until they're "old enough to choose their own value system without having one imposed on them."

"What's wrong with God's?" I'd wondered.

For me, parenthood's not about imposing God's wisdom, but trying to model as early and consistently as we can why it is wise. Whatever path of faith we may walk, how do we impart the Scripture-based values we want to be the foundation of children's lives?

My son once said that the choice God would want us to make just always makes sense. Values, like tools, aid us in our choices as we strive for what is best in God's eyes.

A basic tool kit includes:

- Truthfulness - The foundation of all virtues. Even a hair's breadth outside its bounds, we risk having the truth become clouded in our own mind, an outcome even more dangerous than how our lack of truthfulness may affect others' ability to trust us.

- The Golden Rule - Remarkably similar in the world's major faiths, God's law that we should treat others in the way we would wish to be treated implies that those things high on our own wish list—courtesy, respect, love, and fairness—should be in plentiful supply in our behavior, too.

- Awareness of Purpose - Both our own, and that of all creation. When we know and align our choices with this, our efforts usually succeed.

- Obedience to a Higher Authority - A major source of protection, this has the by-product of attracting confirmations, too. Laws, especially spiritual ones, aren't for God's satisfaction, but our assistance.

- Keeping Our Own Spiritual Account - A good day-to-day part of assessing our progress, the credits and debits our actions and choices lead to. Also a practice that we never want to even think about applying to any life other than our own.

- Living Prayer - Not only to connect and commune with that Higher Authority, but also to be able to perceive the path that our Creator places before us. Our steps on that path, when taken consciously (the most effective use of our power of choice) can literally become living prayers in themselves. This condition can exalt all of our efforts to acts of faith and worship, a source of deep happiness and lasting fulfillment.

Naturally, our first exposure to such spiritual principles and resources, or the absence of them, usually comes within our own families. How often do young people see models of how to apply these tools in the workshop that is daily life?

Workshops are places for learning and practice. They sometimes get messy, but they help us learn how certain rules, and tools, can be applied for the greatest success.

One disadvantage young people often face is that they can get the impression that life, instead of being a workshop, is a rather intimidating art gallery where you only show off what you think you already know.

Much like the skills needed for creating artwork, values, aren't something we acquire only by listening to someone tell us about them. Most of us learn by seeing them in practice, then trying them out ourselves. We generally have more success when given encouragement, as well as helpful advice when we get stuck.

As we strive, day by day, to use such tools within the workshops of our families and our lives, that Higher Authority has offered a promise that can reassure us in our efforts. Baha’u’llah, Prophet-Founder of the Baha’i Faith, says that God has designated these laws and spiritual tools “the lamps of My loving providence among My servants and the keys of My Mercy for My Creatures.”

Such keys, and such assurance, can be found in the foundation of any path of faith. More than 2,000 ago, one of a handful of apostles recounted this same assurance from One Who had sacrificed Himself so that humanity could again receive such light, such keys:

“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love.”(John 15:9-11).