Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

Are you a Mom?

Do you feel like your day-to-day ‘job’ is pretty much … IT?

Laundry. Diaper changing. Mopping. Laundry. Cooking. Sending and picking up the kids. Laundry *again*!

I read about this analogy quite a long while ago. And I’d like to share it with you today.

It goes something like this.

…

There were three busy builders.

Builder X carried rocks from point A to B, day in day out. The weather was warm. Passers-by didn’t seem to appreciate his hard work. And he felt exhausted. He said, ‘What am I doing, carrying all these rocks again and again everyday! Such a tough job! I can’t wait till the day is over!’

Then there’s Builder Y.

He carried sands and pushed his wheelbarrow from point A to B, under the hot scorching sun too. Day in, day out. No one seemed to appreciate his work, and he also felt the same as Builder X. He said, ‘I honestly can’t wait till my job is done! Pushing this wheelbarrow here and there, sweating away! Sands getting in my eyes too! URGH!’

Then Builder Z walked pass Builder X and Y.

Builder Z carried stones and rocks. He was sweating away under the same scorching sun. He looked exhausted too, but somehow he looked as if he didn’t seem to mind doing such hard work.

Curious, Builder X and Y then asked, ‘What’s YOUR story? I haven’t heard you say anything since we started working together.’

Builder Z who has occasionally heard what Builder X and Y talked about all day long everyday, smiled and said, ‘You guys see what you do as ‘just’ carrying rocks and sands from point A and B. I carry stones and rocks, just like you both, and I get tired too. BUT, I don’t see myself as ‘just’ carrying them from point A to B. I see myself as being part of a big project. I’m in the process of building a beautiful tower!’

…

As parents, … yes, we do get unappreciated. We change diapers. We are exhausted. We deal with tantrums (often in public too!). We get back-talks. We cook and yet they’re not eaten at times. We feel emotionally drained a lot too.

But.

When we choose to spend time with our little ones, when we instill values in our day-to-day interactions with them, when we choose to become a positively and actively involved parent in our children’s lives … we ARE in fact taking part in a much bigger project.

We are building characters.

We’re nurturing a soul!

(And before you know it, they’ve all grown up and left our home, and we have not much opportunity left to be with them)

Let’s look beyond the ‘everyday-ness’ of today, and find the joy of doing what we do everyday!

…

(It’s what I remind myself too when the going gets tough with the kids)