12 Important Lessons for Parents

Educating a child is no easy task. Learn from these 12 important lessons how to educate your children to form a better world and guide them to a life of greater happiness  

Photo by Jude Back on Unsplash

In the education process, it is common to hear parents asking themselves where they went wrong or why have their children taken the wrong paths, far from those idealized by them.

In order to allow more thoughtful reflections on this important topic, we aligned some points of prominence in dealing with children, which are not always taken into account.

Examples at Home

Consider the importance of example at home. The child follows models and the closest and most constant ones are the parents. Those who they live every day during the first phase of their lives.

Discipline

Children are not trinkets to be admired and displayed. They are beings that need discipline and affection for the formation of character from an early age.

Parents' Responsibility

No one replaces parents in their responsibilities to their children. No matter how dignified the professionals are and no matter how well paid, they will never be able to provide the assistance that maternal love and paternal security give them.

Let them Live

Children are not satellites that will remain around their parents, indefinitely. Created for progress, they walk on their own path, with personal attitudes and thoughts. They are immortal spirits, who transit the world, in search of a greater objective.

Money, Work and Cooperation

Children can earn allowances and facilities, however, always with a spirit of justice. And, even though your condition may be abundant, one must not forget the need to encourage them to work and cooperate, as much as possible.

Never Overestimate Them

With the excuse of being intelligent, never encourage them to overestimate their own value, remembering the lessons of correct conduct by the branches of humility, since no one has all knowledge.

Be Impartial

Cultivating preferences, as well as welcoming intrigues, rebuking one, insistently, and failing to correct the other, is a path that can cause misconduct among the children, generating jealousy and disagreement.

Career Choice

Never impose a particular professional career on children, without observing the trends, which must be respected.

Be Honest

Always keep in mind that honest explanations around the world and life are the best way, avoiding surrendering children's minds to superstitions and excesses of fantasies.

No Prejudice

Do not to force the little ones to harbor prejudices, teaching them, on the contrary, to respect the harmony of the differences that the world presents.

Marriage

Do not compel children to marry or stop marrying, or frustrate their freedom of choice for a partner.

Final Thoughts

Let us not forget that, as loving parents and interested in the well-being of our children, they are our partners in this experience.

They may be friendly or opponents. They can be creditors who arrive for adjustments or debtors who knock on the door of affection, asking for forgiveness and help.

But, independently of the circumstances, let us keep in mind that we will meet again in the Greater Life, as brothers and sisters before the unique fatherhood of God.

Adapted from Momento Espírita, originally published on April 9, 2014.

See Also

• The Power of Love
• Weighted observation
• The most important bridge
• Bridge of Life
• A Thinking Power
• Divine Poem

The first impression

It's commonly said that the first impression is the last. Turns out that this couldn't be more wrong. Here's why

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

It's commonly said that the first impression is the last.

While it's true that whenever we meet someone we imagine things and even make a preliminary analysis about them, the first impression certainly reflects the haste with which we judge others.

But can we, at the first moment, evaluate the character of others?

Indeed but caution is needed on this first impression as it may lead to false conclusions. For example, shy or reserved people can be considered unfriendly at first glance while mocking or light-hearted creatures may appear only cheerful, in superficial contact.

What is important is that before getting to know someone deeply, we avoid forming firm and irrevocable opinions about their character. Keep an open mind for a possible review of the initial impact that someone has on us.

Take your time before judging others

Sometimes we experience an influx of immediate and profound sympathy for a new friend. However, it's convenient to get to know them better before opening our life and hearts to them

In other occasions we may even feel an immediate dislike for others. In the same way, we must not close the door to understanding just based on a hunch. After controlling the first impulse, try to understand the essence of the other person before labeling them as good or bad.

Emotional Caution

We must learn to use reason in our social life. Neither too close, nor ice cold before getting to know better who arrives in our lives.

An because we often allow great intimacies to strangers who we immediately sympathized with, it's important to remind about emotional caution. Emotional caution does not mean being a bad or cold person. It's just a preventive protection against the world we live in, full of ignorance and violence.

Disappointments

And how to handle disappointments?

For example, we received guest in our house, told our secrets without any caution and then, we felt entitled to say that the new friend let us down. Turns out that people are not always what they appear to be.

Others are what they are, not what we think they should be. No one has an obligation to meet our expectations since the expectations are ours. We are the ones who created them, in our absence of discernment.

We are all fallible because we are human. When we say that someone has disappointed us, we must think that the responsibility for the disappointment is ours. It's us who created an illusion from the other person.

Educate our emotions

It is important that we educate our emotions so we don't expect more from others than they can give.

It is also necessary to know others well before qualifying them one way or another. Only when we perceive their defects and virtues will we be able to identify their intentions.

Final Thoughts

Perceiving the difficulties of others, and yet loving them is a sign of emotional and spiritual maturity. Let us therefore take care of the first impression that others make on us.

With time, discretion and discernment, we will discover the people with whom we have a real affinity. Knowing the other person well is the best we can do to love them without prejudice or unrealistic expectations.

Let us educate our emotions so that we are not driven by impulses.

Adapted from Momento Espírita, originally published on July 13, 2018.

See Also

• The Power of Love
• Weighted observation
• The most important bridge
• Bridge of Life
• A Thinking Power
• Divine Poem

Pleasures

How far can your pleasures take you? How much can they affect your life?

Photo by Gabrielle Henderson on Unsplash

Every man and woman seeks pleasure and well-being. It is a reflection of the conservation instinct, whose objective is to ensure physical existence for as long as possible.

Material life is essential to the intellectual and moral development of the human being and their immortal Spirit.

Sex is pleasurable and through it the species is perpetuated. If there were no satisfaction involved in procreative acts, Humanity would be extinct for a long time.

Food also involves pleasure. The physical body needs to receive fuels suitable for its structure. But meeting this need is not only due to the hunger but also involves satisfaction.

Meeting natural needs, whether physical or emotional, includes a certain amount of pleasure. As we human beings were not made to live alone, we rejoice in contact with friends and loved ones. The need for contact and recognition by others produces sweet sensations.

In balance

But evidently, wisdom lies in balance. Denying the pleasures of life without any noble purpose, should not be commended.

The mother who deprives herself of bread to feed her children shows signs of selflessness and nobility. But eating less than necessary to maintain physical beauty is not recommended.

The higher goals of existence are incompatible with small earthly joys. Jesus signaled this truth by saying that it is not what comes in, but what comes out of the mouth of the man who contaminates him.

If voluntary deprivation of the goods of life is not good, so is abuse. No one is born to eat, drink, sleep and procreate. Living right does not mean refraining from the joys and satisfactions common to the human condition.

Gluttony causes disease and shortens life. The misused use of genetic forces produces physical and emotional imbalances. Sleeping too much or resting too much is a waste of time. Thus, the important thing is to keep balance in the face of earthly tastes and pleasures. If they are not reprehensible, they are also not the purpose of existence.

Purity does not lie in abstaining from the gifts of life, but in using them with balance and discernment, without harming yourself and others. Wisdom lies in using everything in moderation, without becoming a slave to habits, things or sensations.

Final Thoughts

The purpose of our life on Earth is to promote our own intellectual and moral development. Everyone is reborn to overcome old vices, abandon selfishness, live and love. Do not deviate from that goal by a misunderstanding of life.

In the context of our immortal existence, there is little point in becoming an ascetic. It is unworthy to live like an irrational animal, in the relentless pursuit of pleasures.

Strive to be balanced, kind and supportive. It is very laborious, but it is the goal of your coming to Earth.

Adapted from Momento Espírita, originally published on January 13, 2018.

See Also

• The Power of Love
• Weighted observation
• The most important bridge
• Bridge of Life
• A Thinking Power
• Divine Poem