Learning to Love

     This blog post goes along with the aspect of parenting.  The biggest concept that has hit me in class is the concept of Learning to Love.  This blog post is short and sweet but I am not experienced in raising children, I haven't been blessed yet to have this experience.  Someday I will be.  All I have to go on right now are theories.  The ideas of "someday I will teach my children this way..." or "I really hope I don't have to endure this hardship with my child..." come into my mind with my ideal childrearing ways.  Everyone envisions this perfect family system and the ideal perfect child.  The reality is....there is no possible way of knowing how your child will turn out.  The only way to combat this is with that simple 4 letter word, LOVE.
     Just as we don't know what plan God has for us, we don't know the plan he has for our children either.  There are so many things we don't want to have to "deal with" when it comes to raising children.  Nobody wants hardships, we all want smooth sailing.  But something we don't take into account is the astronomical amount of Love we will feel for these little beings whom we have not yet met.  I can only imagine that this love we will someday have for our children will override anything that we may not want to "deal with".  It will be our desire and pleasure to take upon us any task and we will become so selfless in serving our children.  It is my understanding that our children will make us better people and teach us so much more about patience and giving than we could ever teach them.  We gain so much more than we can give.

As our children grow, we grow along with them.  It is a give and take relationship involving love as the main ingredient.

    May I also make another observation that "natural consequences" are a big part of a child's development.  Well meaning and kind parents, because of all of the love they have for their children, might interfere with natural consequences that their children might lean from the most on their own.  Now there are certain natural consequences that are too dangerous and are good for parents to interfere with in order to protect their children, but there are certain ones that you don't need to over parent with.  For example, your child is doing bad in school and you (the parent) steps in and does their school project for them and gets them a good grade.  The child doesn't learn to do better next time in class, they learn that when times get hard, someone will step in and save them and do their job for them.  They don't learn how to naturally become self sufficient.  Give your child a little credit that they might learn a lesson "the hard way" rather than by being protected their whole lives.  I'm sure that will be one of the hardest things I will ever have to allow my children to do.