Showing posts with label raising children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label raising children. Show all posts

Saturday, March 21, 2015

CHILDREN CATCH THEIR PARENTS' DNA





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We know about parents loving their children with all of their hearts... that we want nothing less but everything good and best for them.... that we would go through the 'highest mountains and the seven seas' (a friend loves saying this) for them --- meaning, sacrifice. And that we think we are doing just that. Of course we are but also we are doing something which we may not even be aware of .... until Mitch Albom wrote this...............
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“All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair.” ------- Mitch Albom,
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Sent by Mr. Quote Man (as usual) this morning as the sky begins to shift from white to gray. Gee, now I see thick clouds hiding the blue skies that I love. But as all things in life do.... this too shall pass. Now back to the quote.
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Have you come across similar quotes before or heard somebody say something like it? I think we did and do at some time or another.. but we take no heed nor pay attention because we are so darn set on our children... rather than on how we directly or indirectly influence them in not so pleasant ways, to say the least.
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It made me think tho..........
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Life has its good and bad. Everything comes in pairs, as another friend would say jokingly..... opposites, particularly. In the same way as there is day and night, joy and sorrow, beautiful and ugly, tall and short, fat and think, sunrise and sunset, smiles and tears, man and woman, young and old, sweet and bitter ... etc.
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A person has his own store or pairs of opposites, too. Both joy and sadness... strength and weakness... bravery and cowardice... intelligence and stupidity... compassion and callousness etc... as situations or circumstances roll out in everyday life. In one instance he is one and in the next moment he is the other according to what would trigger such responses in that particular moment.
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These same things come into play at work, play, career, profession, business, family, and particularly in raising children.
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Although we try as best as we can to raise them up in/with good character values, admittedly we cannot, under the same breath, be just as confident and assured that they will not also catch the negatives of who we are. Because they certainly will, no doubt. They, just as Mitch Albom says, will absorb the person that we are or what we show to them.... both the positives and the negatives of who we are. In short, they will catch our DNA.
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Remember these remarks..... "Manang-mana sa tatay yan..." "Eh ganun din ang nanay eh..."   "Like father, like son.....or like mother, like daughter" --- and that could mean either good or bad or sometimes both.
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Can it be helped? avoided? I have no answers to that.
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What I do know is............. teach your children that simple fact as mentioned in the quote ----- 'Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers.' Help them understand also much of what life is all about....... that it all boils down to making the right choices or decisions for the self and for the people we love. This works for them as it had worked for our mothers before us and their mothers before them. It's all about responsibility, accountability, focus, priority, selfless sacrifice, and love.
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Mothers need not be hindered nor should be hindered by the bad within or by the bad without. Instead set her eyes on the better good that must be served, by God's design. We, as mothers, do just like what we do with the rest of life...... give it our best shot! We try to teach them what they should be learning......... and hope to God they catch it really well.
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Then when our work is done.... we can sit back and watch as our children make something of what they have learned by also serving the bigger and better good in their own lives and in the world as well. Still by God's design.
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Blessings, everyone! May God bless all the mothers and fathers in the world.




Tuesday, August 6, 2013

ROOTS AND WINGS

                
A rainy morning and a timely quote from my inbox (thanks, Mr. Quote Man) for a piece I was going to write.........


"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children.
One of these is roots, the other wings". -- Unknown

Three college girls walked past my house on their way to school this rainy morning. It looked like not even a cold and rainy morning such as this could dampen their conversation which nestled on the subject of the future... their future. Before they went out of sight I was able to grab snippets of their chat with words such as ---- big dreams, leave home, abroad, independent, sad, family ties.....

If their mothers could hear them now I am pretty sure that it would make immeasurably sad their hearts. Although mothers pretty well know that one day soon their kids would grow up and finally leave home. Still when that day comes they don't really let go. At least that's how they would feel in the silence of their hearts.

Something I have heard from my mother as she entertained her buddies over lunch in our house long ago was this --- 'Mothers are just stewards of their children. The kids don't belong to us though we gave birth to them. They belong to God.'

Many years after when it was my turn to leave the nest, I finally understood what she meant. Although it pained her (I could see it in her eyes) to see me go but she let go. Maybe she thought her job was done and I was ready to be on my own. But was I?

Looking back now I can honestly say that maybe I was. Life was tough but I was tougher it seemed. Now I know my mother's thoughts. She knew about life and she made sure that I be equipped for the rush and tumble of a crazy world outside. She did what all mothers do.... she built on character. On this she shaped my roots knowing wisely that I could not depart from it whatever be the challenges. She did not aim to protect me from failure or mistakes or disappointments. Instead she made me understand that it's all part of the landscape of life and living. And she taught me the wisdom of learning to make the right responses towards it, as best as could be managed. She pointed to God as a supreme eternal guide and help comparable to none. She didn't make praying difficult to do... it's easy when you free the heart to speak. Kindness, generosity, compassion, honesty, dignity of labor, faith and trust, and the essential tiny courtesies of life.... among the good stuff she insisted upon. Imperfection was not a crime (nobody is perfect) but excellence a better choice. Best of all she walked her talk. I saw in her life how strength of character makes one come out a winner. One not by human or the world's standards but a winner in the heart of a Magnificent God greatly pleased. I guess that is what truly matters at the end of the day.

So this is what it is ..... ROOTS and WINGS -- gifts a mother alone can give to her child by the work of her mind, hand, heart, and soul enabled by an All-Knowing God. And when her job is done she humbly steps aside ..... and God takes over.

Love your mothers. Nobody else on earth can do what they do.
I miss my mom but I know that she's happy where she is now.

God bless you!! Enjoy your day.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

A MOTHER LOVES THIS BIG - BUT GOD BIGGER

I was on the phone early this morning with a close friend. We chatted like old friends do even without first warming our tummies with breakfast. Coffee for her, cereal for me. Then our chat got to talking bout her children in the States. Struggling she said and at this point a mother's heart broke down. How she wished that she could gather all their burdens and carry them on her shoulders. Oh yeah, a female Atlas with the weight of the world (her kids' world anyhow) on her small shoulders. But those are typically the very thoughts of a mother for her children.

Choking with emotion and I suppose with tears streaming down her face, she spoke how life was and is still tough going for them. Land of Promise? Nah but yes eventually you could get to that point but not after you have given your blood, sweat, and tears for it. It's not offered on a silver spoon.

My friend is a devoted mother --- she'll cross the seven seas or climb Kilimanjaro for her children.... or skin a human being alive if he dares hurt any one of them. Well, she would given the reason! She's a darling mother and friend. So precious to me.

Now why am I telling her story? Because I want to say this........

Hard as it may be to accept this but our children are now grown. Individuals now traveling down their own life roads .. as designed by God. They will struggle.. cry.. laugh.. rejoice.. hurt.. be saddened.. frustrated.. disappointed.. angry.. ride high and low or be tossed about by the winds of strife. They will go through it ---- we can't do it for them. They will learn their own life lessons or fail at it. They will reap their own failures or successes.... punishment or reward. While we stand at a distance... watching... with our hearts pierced with the sharpest sword that can ever pierce a mother's heart. Our pain bigger than the wound it creates.

But if you as a mother did your job well, as God designed you to .... you can stand there confident knowing in your heart that .... 

'you have raised your child in the way he should go... 
and that he shall not depart from it'.

That is your comfort and peace. You have raised a winner. And a winner will he be all through his life, even long after you have gone. And don't worry cos ... God who took good care of you is the same God who will take care of your children.

God bless all the mothers in the world!!