TOO CLOSE TO THE MIRROR

I love story telling so I am going to begin with one. from Aesops fables...

Æsop. (Sixth century B.C.)  Fables.

The Young Thief and His Mother

A YOUNG Man had been caught in a daring act of theft and had been condemned to be executed for it. He expressed his desire to see his Mother, and to speak with her before he was led to execution, and of course this was granted. When his Mother came to him he said: “I want to whisper to you,” and when she brought her ear near him, he nearly bit it off. All the bystanders were horrified, and asked him what he could mean by such brutal and inhuman conduct. “It is to punish her,” he said. “When I was young I began with stealing little things, and brought them home to Mother. Instead of rebuking and punishing me, she laughed and said: ‘It will not be noticed.’ It is because of her that I am here today.”	1
“He is right, woman,” said the Priest: the Lord hath said: “TRAIN UP A CHILD IN THE WAY HE SHOULD GO; AND WHEN HE IS OLD HE WILL NOT DEPART THEREFROM.”

Today we had one of those experiences that first reminds you of the story above and then  you stop and think ...okay...wow...people actually still think like this in real life? And then i remembered a song we once sang somewhere. " I am too close to the mirror...? I suppose in a big way that line has stuck to my mind. Every time i cant seem to have a direction I step back and take a look at my thinking.

So there is this mom concerned that her child is sweeping a class...(from how it was described i noted with concern it might have been a punishment). However she did not stop there and went on to rant and rave that her child was made to sweep, clean and explained that her child even at home cannot do such a thing and it is a show of abuse. OKAY......STOP!!!how old is this child.......9 YEARS.....CASE CLOSED. And my oh my was she angry at the teacher and the school to the point of annoying all of us seated there...

9 years old should know how to at least pick a broom up or remove a cup from the table ...NOT this child i tell you. Not this one. But as a matter of concern how many parents (Mother's we top the chart on this one) do we actually baby our children to the point that they cannot or will not do anything for themselves...? I am especially concerned that it spills over into our school system. We don't like to be told that our children need correction, we don't like them to be corrected, we don't want to correct them because they are "babies" and then when disaster strikes we are quick to cry that our child does not listen...

We have a saying here..(translated from Swahili) "Whoever is not taught by the mother will be taught by the world"

I believe that a child until they are of a certain age will project their parents thinking onto the rest of the world. We need to be careful. Are we too close to the mirror that we see with a distorted view? Will we be the kind of parents who paint a bad picture of everyone else then expect that this children will fit into the society some day, will be able to handle situations that come their way? We don't claim to be perfect , but the day those little feet know how to walk a level of independence settles in. What do we want them to see of the world?

It is wrong to victimize a child. It is even worse to give a child a punishment they don't deserve and don't understand, but denying them the opportunity to learn a skill that will be useful in the future is wrong on many levels. This children will not have us fighting their battles all the time. In our absence will they stand the test?

i will leave you with Solomon’s advice to parents is to “train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6).