Kids say the darnedest things. But their mental fortitude is even more impressive.

After recently losing his first basketball game by a whopping 12 buckets, my son Max (pictured) turned to one of his teammates and said, “It’s okay—we’re still cool.”

His mother and I laughed, of course. But it was obvious this friend was familiar with the sentiment. We asked Max about it later. He said he and his friends often say this to each other whenever they screw up.

I love this mentality. We all make mistakes. But that doesn’t diminish our value, Max says. Brilliant!