At 2 years old, Jack reached the age that he could be instructed to change his behavior, at least momentarily. After a little coaching, his mother could say, “Jack, be friendly” and that one phrase would convey a list of things that Jack could do to change his behavior.

When asked, “What does ‘be friendly’ mean?” Jack would immediately grin like the Cheshire Cat, then he would say, “No crying,” and finally he would sigh, shrug his shoulders, throw out his hands, and say, “Beeeeeeeee nice.”

Mother's Wisdom is this, we should be friendly. You've heard it all your life.

And the truth is we can all change our behavior for the moment, we can decide that it’s not all about us sometimes and we can smile, stop crying, even if the crying is not literal but figurative, and we can be nice.

But even though we can be nice, sometimes we choose not to be nice. Unfortunately as with every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

When Jack chooses, in his 2 year old wisdom, to disobey Mom's gentle reminder to 'be friendly' there are consequences. They can range from losing the cookie he was wanting so badly or perhaps even being sent to be by himself until he can "get it together."

As adults, choosing not to 'be friendly' sometimes has more serious consequences than being left alone or losing the cookie.

It is said that we have 11 seconds to make a good impression and it takes over 17 minutes to replace the 11 second first impression. Have you ever heard of smiling on the phone?

Not too long ago, a company made several errors on a bill.

When I called to complain, it was not with a smile.

To be quite truthful, there was so much non-smiling going on that the first lady hung up.

After being rebuked thoroughly I called back and smiled verbally; they were very glad to help and the matter was resolved..

"No crying" is a little harder at times and is often translated in adult communication as whining.

Yesterday a man came in for funds to the church office in which I work. He was saying how he had lost his job and was just out of luck.

I've encountered a lot of people in that circumstance, unfortunately.

But I've also noticed that it's easier to help people in tough circumstances when they, too, remember to "be nice."

What is it exactly to "Be Nice"?

Jack's version of being nice is to rethink what he was going to do or say. Instead of screaming for his own way, he calms down and asks nicely.

Instead of repeating his request for the 57th time, he looks up with an expectant look in his eyes that says, "You've heard me, now I am going to wait for the answer".

Proverbs says, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it". If you didn't get that training, it's never too late to start. If you did then by all means continue on.

Mother's wisdom for today is to remember "Be Friendly." It's worth it.