Daily Meditation: Sunday, August 31, 1997

Parents must endeavour at all times to be faultless in the …

08/31/1997

Parents must endeavour at all times to be faultless in the eyes of their children and they must control themselves in order not to show any weakness. When they fail to do this, the children become troubled, disoriented, because they no longer have anything to hold on to. Children instinctively look for support from beings who personify justice, greatness, power, and when they see their parents do wrong, something inside them breaks down. For children to feel protected – they feel so small and weak – they need to sense there is an infallible authority above them. Children know not a great deal, but they do know they are weak and this is why they need protection, why they huddle up against their mother to feel her warmth. But children need this protection even more on the mental, emotional, and spiritual plane. This is why, when children come to understand that their mother or father is not up to the task, they feel lost or rebel. And this is the source of many a family tragedy and misery.