Ever since I read the NPR article that I posted below I have been thinking about what I want to teach my children. It is said that our actions speak louder than words, but I don't know if we ever truly understand this until we are raising children. One of the hardest tasks as a parent is to teach a child good habits that you yourself do not possess. For example, I am not a naturally tidy person, but I am trying to instill this practice within my children. In order for them to really learn how to be tidy, they need to watch me being tidy, and they will then follow my example. As you can imagine, this is a constant struggle as I am striving to teach myself something, as well as my kids.
Knowing all this to be true, I then read the article and asked myself, "What am I teaching my children about the nature of 'struggle'." Every day that I get up and do all of the tasks that I don't want to do, no matter how difficult they are, I am teaching my children about hard work and how to be a diligent worker. When we do schoolwork and he does really well on a reading lesson, do I commend his "smarts" or his hard work? I know LOTS of really smart people, heck, I'm married to one. Sebastian's godfather is one of the smartest men I have ever met and I grew up with three really smart brothers. But all of the people that I know who are really smart, are also REALLY hard workers. They do well at what they do, not because they rely upon their brains, but because they use the gifts that God has given them and strive to improve them.
We recently watched Chariots of Fire--one of my favorite movies of all time and if you have never seen it, I strongly recommend that you do so. This movie (based on a true story) is about young men with great talents, and yet to succeed in their chosen field (running) they must train, and struggle, and work to reach their full potential. One of my favorite lines from the movie is when Eric Liddle says, "I believe that God made me for a purpose...but He also made me FAST and when I run, I feel His pleasure (and then the best part that we don't always hear) and to Not do so, would be to hold Him in contempt." (caps are mine). God has given us gifts and we should honor Him with those gifts, by constantly be struggling to improve them rather than wasting them because the other alternative is too much work.
Even though it doesn't exactly fit in with what I have been discussing, I will leave you with the Master's wonderful speech from the Freshmen Dinner in Chariots of Fire, "Examine yourselves, let each of you discover where your true chance of greatness lies...seize this chance, rejoice in it, and let no power or persuasion deter you in your task."
No comments:
Post a Comment