Who Is Your Hero?

This was posted last March. I've put it here because it has reminded me that as parents, Andy and I need to keep a constant watch over our children. Not just in terms of their behaviour and whether their shoes still fit, but their emotional and spiritual well being.

We have an obligation and a duty to ensure our children grow up as stable as possible. Feeling loved and cared for and able to freely talk about any issues that bother, scare, frighten, lift, inspire or elate them.

In Ephesians 6v4 we are instructed not to exasperate our children. I find sometimes I do this when I ask Joshua to do small chores around the house. He gets frustrated that I don't give him time to complete one task before I'm asking for the next one to be done. But while his position is to honour his parents, we have an equally responsible role of making sure that we do not expect too much from him. I think sometimes we also forget that because our children are not mature and grown up and able to handle 'adult' issues, we don't give them the credibility of understanding more than we think they do. But although they understand it, it doesn't mean they have the ability to deal with it.

Last year Joshua's class were asked to write on a piece of paper who their heroes were.

Joshua brought home a piece of paper with quotes on from his classmates all detailing who their heroes were. Some of them were the usual you'd expect from 8 and 9 year old children, but two were really sensitive. We sometimes overlook how much our children take in, but this brought home to me that there's more going on in their little heads than playstations and kicking a ball around the playground.

When other Mums and I read the sheets in the playground there were tears - because these two kids shouldn't have had to be in a position to write the things they did.

James - 'My hero is my Mum because she saved me from being hit by a fire engine even though it meant she got hurt'. She was hit by it instead, broke her legs and was in hospital for weeks.

James - 'I hope that I would be as brave as my Mum was'. James lost his Dad two years ago to Cancer.