Parenting with Joyfulness

Suppose you were given a seed. All the time you think this seed is to become a rose bush. As it begins to grow, you think, “These leaves are strange – they are bigger than they should be.” In your confusion and frustration, you begin to prune the tree and cut the large leaves smaller and smaller. Every day the bush seems to be getting bigger than you can control and the stems are growing thicker than they should, and every day you are thinking, “This is not what you are supposed to be.” Finally, one day, a huge flower appears on your rose bush. It is large and white and the smell is so sweet. In this moment, you realize that what you thought was a rose bush was really a magnificent magnolia tree all along.

Similarly, when we raise our children, we may not see them for who they are. Instead, we want to mold them into just what we think they should be. Do we know the best ways to help them grow?