Saturday, April 12, 2008

to practice what we preach?

this hit me a while back, admist all my thoughts on flavourful shopping dreams and uni woes:

i cannot seem to help but think of how we adults (ok i'm not one yet, but almost) seem to tell children to do the things that we hardly ever do. it's like not practicing what you preach.

for example, when we're mad and we say hurtful things to each other, why is it so? why are adults just as impulsive sometimes and we end up not giving each other that 'cool-down' period of calming before we actually talk things out in a more amicable manner? on the other hand, when we're with kids, we do make an effort to give them that calm-down period before we actually talk to them, because we know that when a person is angry, nothing good or senseful will go in. and therefore it's not surprising when kids grow up into adults without learning about cooling down before talking to someone, or waiting for that someone to calm down before approaching him/her again. because they learn from the adults they trust and model after them - the adults who are seen without giving each other grace.

what about those adults who do not give other adults grace but give children grace because they're children? well there's the inconsistency.. and when one's inconsistent, obviously it's a 50-50 situation so kids may just pick up on either one of the 2: giving others grace, or not.

i think that only when consistency is reached, when we practice among ourselves what we practice with our children, would they learn that perhaps, all of that is the way to go.

well of course, consistency is one big battle which we ourselves, especially when in anger, are trying to hard to win, because sometimes it's like playing a mind game with oneself.
bee at 1:07 AM