"It is the responsibility of every adult — especially parents, educators, and religious leaders — to make sure that children hear what we have learned from the lessons of life and to hear over and over that we love them and that they are not alone," writes Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund. In this brief, shining, and uplifting work, she pays tribute to her parents, teachers, and Baptist church leaders for teaching her that "service is the rent we pay for living." Edelman passes on to her sons 25 lessons which she hopes will serve as their spiritual foundation. The character qualities she celebrates include love, self-reliance, responsibility, honesty, living in the present, and lifelong learning.