God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages.
~ Jacques Deval
I love to watch the birds in my yard. It's amazing to watch them fly and to listen to their songs, each varied and beautiful in it's own way. It would be sad to see these birds, so happy in their natural environment, contained in a small cage. It would be sad to see these birds, so graceful in their flight, with clipped wings to keep them close.
But I have to wonder if we sometimes do that to our children. Do we, in an attempt to keep them close, or make them the person we want them to be, cage them. Not literally, but with our expectations. Do we clip the wings that would take them to the heights God created them to reach, and instead keep them close to the ground.
Each child is born with gifts and natural abilities that are an important part of who that child is. But sometimes these are so different from the gifts and abilities of the child's parents and teachers that they are misunderstood and inadvertantly "clipped." The result is a child who feels caged and frustrated.
There are of course, the basics that every child has to learn. How to follow instructions when necessary, to be polite, the value of a job well done. But there are times when I child sees things or does things differently than I would and I forget to stop and see the value in the different point of view. There are times when a child's interests different from mine and I forget to acknowledge and encourage those interests.
Today I want to give the gift of flying, the freedom of the open sky, to a child who is trying to grow into the person God created him or her to be. I want to hear each individual and beautiful song.
credit:
Tina Phillips
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