When you go to sleep at night what thoughts enter your head? Are
they about negative things that happened to you or positive upbeat thoughts?
More often than not it is the former (We’ll admit this if we are honest)… :)
Man is made for relationships. So no wonder the identity of a
man is defined by how he perceives himself, how others perceive him and how he thinks others perceive him. (All of these opinions may differ from what
he actually is. But that’s another story). People are not angels. Simply put we
all are imperfect and slightly
confused individuals. So if you form an opinion about yourself from three
different imperfect, slightly confused inputs you’ll certainly end up not
liking yourself. :) And if you don’t like yourself you’ll not allow anyone
around you to like their own selves. If you are unhappy you won’t affirm anyone
else’s happiness.
In a high proximity environment like ours everyone will have opinions about everyone else. How to feel happy about
yourself in a world that constantly picks at you? If a considerable amount of
people criticize you, you’ll probably start believing the lies they say about
you. This is a red alert situation; one that needs to be dealt with.
The Bible emphasizes at two places (maybe more but I know of
two) that you have to become like little children to enter the
kind of life God has kept for you. We think children are naïve and need us for
guidance but God teaches grown men keeping little children as examples. There
are certain things that little children do, that we don’t and don’t, that we
do.
1) Little
children don’t go on and on dissecting negative incidents until they go crazy
and depressed
2) They
can quickly forget what happened to
them down to the last couple of minutes
3) Their
memories are full of where the chocolates are hidden, what rewards had been
promised to them for good behavior, when their birthday is coming up and who
will give what gifts and so on. In short their memories are saturated with
positive, hope filled issues
4) They
forgive quickly and hence are not scarred. If you shout at children they
might be hurt for a while but once you calm down they’ll come right back as
though nothing happened. They’ll not plan to get back at you on a different
occasion or sulk for days together. Their time is too precious to be wasted on
such activities
5) They
have very positive opinions about themselves and they don’t care two hoots if
anyone thinks otherwise :). If you scold a child groundlessly she wouldn’t think of ways to somehow change and get
approval from you. Instead she would leave you and spend time with people who
adore her. Her world will not be shaken by
one negative opinion
6) They
are quick learners. I have seen adults who have problems sending a SMS. But
children!! They can figure out ipads, ipods, tablets you name it. They are
thrilled easily and they are never too lazy to learn anything new that can add
value to their lives
7) They
watch good movies. Where the heroine is a brave heart and can stand up for
herself and her people. The hero is a hard working young man who respects women
and gives his heart to only one lady and he treats her like a princess all his
life :)
Courtesy : http://samlim.deviantart.com/
8) They remain the same everywhere. They hardly have any prejudice. I have seen little children
speak with exactly the same indulgence with the CO of a ship and the amma cleaning their rooms back
home
9) They
don’t take life too seriously
10) They CELEBRATE their victories
however small. They don’t ignore their triumphs to plan for their next big
conquest. They truly live in the now – where the real life is happening
There is indeed a
lot we can learn from children :)
