The Log in Your Eye

I celebrated my birthday this week. It was a day of many lessons. I had an appointment that morning but because of a wrong left turn, I ended up missing my appointment. Instead I spent the next two hours driving along unfamiliar roads. I was relieved when I finally made it back to my sanctuary, my home.

That evening, when I picked my daughter from school, I was greeted by a tearful girl. My daughter had signed up for a culinary arts competition in school with her best friend. Due to circumstances which could not be worked out, both parties agreed to drop out of the competition.  However, both parties were terribly disappointed and as a result. started to blame one another. It was not healthy but not unexpected. Their friendship has been affected. I felt that they had to learn to cope with their disappointment and learn from this incident. However, what was totally unexpected was that  a mother had  joined the blame game.

I was shocked at the turn of events. As a parent, we act as  guides and advisors  for our children, We are there to lend support and provide resources for them to bloom to their full potential, During the school going years, they will meet many new friends who will go in and out of their lives. Some of the best friendships are made in school but not all friendships will last. Friends too will have their disagreements. It is all a part of growing up and learning how to relate with one another.

Therefore, I was dismayed that a parent had jumped right into the fray to say some very disparaging things about both my daughter and myself. Those scathing and hurtful words, as expected, came back to my daughter's ears and I could see that she was deeply hurt. As parents, we have to remember too, to keep within our boundaries. We have to respect our children and other children's decisions and privacy too.. Before interfering in our children's relationships, ask first what our true intentions are. Will our actions benefit our children? Or will our need to justify, blame and be "right" cause more problems for those we profess to love?  How can blaming others possibly bring about more peace and harmony in everyone's lives?.

Words, words, words. We use them so loosely but forget that they are as sharp as knives. If you can see psychically the impact of words on the aura of a person, you can actually see people sending daggers or knives to one another. They cut and hurt deeply.

I regret how juvenile we adults can become. As adults, we are role models to all children, whether or not they are our own. It also matters not how many times one professes to be "religious". The real test is in the way one carries oneself and the words that comes out of one's mouth. To quote a Bible verse "a good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of". "First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye".