04 February 2009

A timely reminder…

When I was studying in NZ, frequently I used to study in the library. Being not the bright one, I needed to spend a lot of time revising and the best place was in my Engineering library. Not only I had studies on my mind, some times the worry of money and been away from home doesn’t really help in giving me a peace of mind.

I still remember one day in the library, looking out the window at the lawn, I saw some birds picking out worms from the grass. Somehow I was drawn to the verse in the bible that even as God take cares of the birds, He will also take care of our needs. When our minds are troubled, it’s such a relief to be reminded of this. Even till this day, I can still remember that particular day.

Over the years I have had many sort of reminders from God but never had to do with birds until recently. Now I am no more a student but a dad with a growing teenager son and a daughter who is fast approaching her teens. I must say that these are challenging times. Being a dad with a teenager is no easy task. We will never know whether our parenting skills are on the right path until they have all grown up….which could be too late if we found out that parenting skills could be better.

Recently I have been praying that God will help us weather the storm as we ride it through with our son. Though we are still in the storm but God is amazing because He brought the “third” generations sunbirds back in my garden again. Watching the young birds grow has been fun and enriching.

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Last Saturday when I looked out my glass doors, guess what I saw? One of the young ones was hanging out of the nest for its dear life. Quickly I tried to dislodge its leg. It’s amazing how a simple nest could be so sturdy and it was really difficult to dislodge its leg. After a while I managed to do it and popped it back in the nest.

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Watching these birds I was reminded that even if our children are in trouble but because of our relationship with God, He will always be there to rescue them and if our family foundation is strong, our children will not be easily lost to the world.

Throughout the day, the sunbird parents were trying to coaxed its young ones to take its maiden flight. The mother bird would be picking out the materials from the nest making the nest unsafe hoping that the young ones will take off.

Sometimes we too will have to make unpopular decisions which to our best knowledge the decision and more often than not, it will definitely caused anxiety to our children.

The father bird would be feeding its young ones from a distance so that the young ones would have to stretch its neck out to take the food.

But as parents, we too must slowly learn to let go as our teens grow up and will one day leave to lead a life of their own.