Looking back at my childhood, I remember myself with stitches, cuts, road-rash, casts, etc... you name it, I went through it. The most vivid memory comes when I fell off of a tree that was in front of my house... moments before, my mom had told me to stop climbing the tree. Next thing you know... I was face-down, on the ground. Worst of all, I wanted to cry and there were a few girls around! I was soon asking myself why did my mom not make me get off the tree. But next thing you know, I was off to the hospital to get a cast!My mom would often say "ESTE MUCHACHO ME VA A MATAR DE UN ATAQUE CARDIACO!". That was as a result of the numerous times I ended up with an injury.
She always tried to warn me... however, there were times where she knew her little boy was not going to be heeding to any warnings... during those instances, she would step aside and allow me to fall, break or sprain a bone or ligament... in essence, she would step aside and allow the hardships of life to give me a lesson I rejected to learn from her. To her credit, most of the times she would force me to stop, but I always found a way to register for the latest course offerings at the "School of Hard Knocks".
The problem that would arise soon after an injury was that I would blame my mom for letting me fall or get hurt. What a stubborn little boy I was!
As a parent, I too have employed some parenting from the school of hard knocks. A few months back I was helping my daughter learn how to ride her bike without the training wheels. I noticed that she was ready... she had all the skills needed to ride her bike. However, she was reluctant to do as I would encourage her to do... instead she relied on me. After repeatedly asking her to try to balance herself, I had come to the conclusion that she was not going to balance herself unless she understood what were the consequences of not doing so (balancing)...
So as she rode her bike and smiled... her lovely daddy (that would be me) let her go. She, of course, did not balance herself and went tumbling down onto the ground. Luckily for her (and me too - my wife would have killed me if she had gotten hurt), she veered off to the grass and did not hurt herself.
After the fall, as her daddy did before her, she blamed me for the fall. Go figure! However, by the end of the day, she was riding her bike like Lance Armstrong! She learned how to balance herself on the bike. She was as happy as a little girl can be. Unfortunately, she fell again a couple of days later and has not ridden her bike since! Stay tuned, she will be back on it soon!
I recently wrote about the choices we make in relation to God's sovereignty... there are times when we ourselves need to go through hardship... tough times... because we are reluctant to understand (or acknowledge) the risks associated to our actions.
Too often we forget that we are the root cause of our problems. The hardships of life usually come as a result of our disobedience and disbelief. It has been my experience that acknowledging my wrong doing helps me come to terms with the hardships and realign myself to ensure that I do not repeat the lesson. Who wants to pay tuition for the same course twice???
Were you (or are you still) a student of the School of Hard Knocks? I have the tendency of taking courses sporadically! :-)
Food for thought:
Prov 1:29-33 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD. 30 "They would not accept my counsel, They spurned all my reproof. 31 "So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way And be satiated with their own devices. 32 "For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them. 33 "But he who listens to me shall live securely And will be at ease from the dread of evil."
Psa 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word.
Psa 119:71 It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.
Eze 33:17 "Yet your fellow citizens say, 'The way of the Lord is not right,' when it is their own way that is not right.
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