Quotes from Amy Hollingsworth

When Jesus told His followers, "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3), He was pointing toward the vulnerability and openness that are essential for those of us who aren't children to inherit the kingdom of God. This identification with children was important to Fred.

I think that Fred felt that loved ones in heaven do help those they left behind. He once told me, 'I think of my mother and my dad, and they're both in heaven and have been for a long time, and I know that they still love me and they help me. I have friends who are in heaven, and I know that they inspire me to do all kinds of things in this life.

And that one part can make an enormous difference in the lives of others, especially when we commit to a life of spiritual wholeness that's represented by looking inward with our hearts (inner disciplines affect how we see others); looking outward with our eyes (how we see others affects how we treat others); and finally, by using what we've learned practically, with our hands.

Well, you know, I'm passionate about that. I just feel that we need to help children from the earliest time to realize that there are ways that they can express how they feel, ways that aren't hurtful.

But when I asked Fred directly about the oft-misunderstood concept of self-esteem, he said, "Now self-esteem is certainly not brought about by people saying that a child has done something wonderful when that person doesn't believe it.

To make others feel more human, Fred sought to see their Maker in them and then to treat them accordingly.

Self-esteem doesn't come from a child hearing something that's not true about him or her. If an adult does not believe that the child has done a good job with something, well, it's not the least bit helpful to say so.

You know how when you find somebody who you know is in touch with the truth, how you want to be in the presence of that person?" People felt that way about him.

When our children were old enough to communicate, I would try to talk them out of their negative feelings—or convince them there was no foundation for them. But what I found out is that suppressing feelings has the same fate as trying to suppress a beachball in the ocean—they both come out sideways.

Writer and apologist C. S. Lewis isn't known for his philosophy on self-esteem or his musings on the legitimacy of feelings, but he did make an observation about Christians and their relationship to Christ that I think Fred would agree with: "When they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever.

Just as he heralded the importance of expressing other kinds of emotions, Fred felt it essential to give others permission to grieve over the losses in their lives. He learned that lesson himself when he was six years old.

His definition of neighbor was simple: the person you happen to be with at the moment—whether that person is a Samaritan, a hermit bearing gifts, or a television viewer.

At the center of Fred's theology of loving your neighbor was this: Every person is made in the image of God, and for that reason alone, he or she is to be valued—"appreciated," he liked to say. He believed there is sacredness in all creation—including fallen man—because of one Man, "the true light, which enlightens everyone" (John 1:9, NRSV).

Cisterns are made to hold water, but there was no water in it at the time. Had there been, Joseph could have drowned. Instead he stayed relatively safe inside the cistern until his brothers inadvertently moved him toward his destiny in Egypt.

Amy, this may sound like a cop-out, but I watch so little television," he apologized and then added firmly, "and I don't mean to be elitist about that. There are members of my family who watch a lot of television and get a lot from it. But I would much rather read.

Fred was trying to preserve that special connection that children have with God, their absolute trust and acceptance, and at the same time, he was trying to loose their parents from the prison-house. For Fred, the prison-house included the "stuff" that we collect to fill up our lives, things like new cars and new houses that have left us empty as we've grown and matured into "adults" just like the ones the Little Prince met along the way.

It's fun when you have a project. You have an idea for something you want to do, and then think about how you want to do it. It takes a lot of planning. I know it's hard work. And I'm so proud of you for trying.

If the world could know that we don't have to put people in concentration camps and annihilate people just because we're angry with them. And the anger probably goes back for centuries. If we could just know that.

A concept Fred likely learned in his graduate studies in child development, sublimation is the process by which socially unacceptable behaviors are channeled—sublimated—into more socially acceptable ways.

Fred Rogers' spiritual answer to how we "treat bad people" is much more far-reaching than the psychology behind sublimation

inner disciplines affect how we see others); looking outward with our eyes (how we see others affects how we treat others); and finally, by using what we've learned practically, with our hands.

The world needs to learn to know what to do with negative feelings," he told me, explaining his motivation for writing the song. "It's so easy to pick up a gun and shoot somebody. It's so much healthier—and so much more dramatic—to work out something interpersonally with somebody and to come to a resolution that means weal in both people's life.

You can be an accuser or an advocate.

Just as it takes a tree a long time to begin to grow again once it's transplanted, so you can give your healthy roots time to find the nourishment of your new soil in your new community.