By David Coy
Sunrise
To those who are parents of children still in the home and to those who would like to be a parent, this will be a good principle to remember. It is our duty to prepare our children to be adults. We are to nurture them in truth and in love. We are to enable them to be independent in their abilities, to perform basic household chores, to balance finances and to make independent decisions of their own. We should teach them to respect authority, leading by example, not just in precept. Life is full of change, and learning to accept even change that is unwanted and unpleasant is essential to a balanced life.
In like manner we should accept change by way of sorrow, grief, trials, tribulation, loss and separation, as they come to all mankind and have existed in every generation past and present. If you have not experienced sorrow in your life, you will. Someone once said that we have nothing in life to fear; we have only things to understand because fear is the result of ignorance. While that seems a bit over simplistic, there is merit to striving to understand in advance that sorrow comes in many different ways and for many different reasons. Complete understanding in every situation is probably unrealistic, but we can learn to grow in our understanding of our specific circumstances to the extent we are able. Recognize that separation comes in relationships, whether through death or other circumstances that will result in pain of mind (grief). If we know this will happen in our life, we can prepare our children by showing how we face our sorrows head on and by teaching them to do the same. Teach them that it is normal to express our emotions and that we should not hide or shelter ourselves from experiencing loss.
This is Sunrise Aftercare, sunrise@sfdcares.com.
