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Dear Readers,
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity” . . .
Albert Einstein
Every child is an opportunity for us to give our
love. As babies, they look into our eyes as they
nurse and give us unconditional love. I can still
vividly remember my first experience nursing my
first baby. She was a little bald, pink bundle of
sweetness. Her eyes were squeezed closed as if the
bright lights of the hospital were too much for her
little eyes to handle. She barely had any eyelashes
and those she had were wet on her cheeks. She had
the cutest little lips with a dimple in the middle
of her upper lip. She took right to the breast as if
she had nursed for months. Her little fingers
grasped tightly around my finger.
I had created this little person. She was my
daughter. There was never anything more beautiful in
the whole world. I fell more deeply in love with her
than I could have imagined possible.
As our children grow and develop, we are given many
opportunities to show them how much we love them.
Never is there a greater opportunity to show them we
love them than when we discipline or when we are
firm with them. After my daughter became a toddler
and then a young child, I had many opportunities to
show her how much I loved her. And, when she became
a teenager opportunities abounded.
However, it wasn’t until she became a teenager that
I realized being firm and providing discipline was
an opportunity to show all my children how much I
loved them. I even told them, “I wouldn’t be so hard
on you if I did not love you.”
This is so true; if I did not love them, it would
have been easier to let them watch TV for hours or
eat junk food or (heaven forbid) do drugs. If I did
not love them, I would not care. So the next time
you have the opportunity to discipline your child,
remember that it’s an opportunity to show them how
much you love them. They will thank you for caring
later on in their life. It will be difficult, but it
will pay off.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
‘Til March, Happy Parenting
Brenda
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