One black American friend of mine told me that his problem is the crab mentality of his relatives. I think this problem is true in all cultures, for it stems from our envious and covetous nature—our nature to love what’s not ours! Like crabs, we pull down to our level anyone who will rise above us from among our clan members. As a family, we want our relative who’s richer than we are to help us and pull us out from where we are.
G
ood parents are rare, just as obedient children are rare. This thought is very debatable, for the evil in children is sometimes learned from the evil that is in their parents. But can we be a good parent? I believe there are tons of brilliant ideas concerning good parenthood out there, but I would want to focus on four things.
Divorce is needed when the marital union only brings harm to the life of the spouses and the children as well. Otherwise, divorce should not be taken as an option for mere incompatibility or misunderstanding.
Our sense of self-confidence, superiority and pride do not please God. Although He is a merciful God, He also wills that we humble ourselves before Him. Said the atheists that religion is intellectual infancy. If religion is relationship with God, then Christ had a religion, since during His earthly ministry, He wouldn’t do anything without first saying a prayer to His Father God. Yes, Christ had a religion, but no one would dare say that our Lord had intellectual infancy in His Person. The atheists don’t include faith in their intellectual and emotional menu, for the beauty of reason and science are the ones governing and adorning their mindset. I had a casual acquaintance with atheists, and I know that even cancer or heart attack or any form of death-threat cannot change their anti-God views. But it “is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb. 10:31) For us on the opposite side, we need to be fearful to our merciful God, and here are our reasons:
If there’s one thing we don’t fully understand, it is our nature to depend on someone or something in times of need. A child depends on his or her mother, for example, and the mother on her job or parents. Abraham Lincoln once said, “All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”
Do you want to succeed in life—I mean, really succeed in life? If so, always keep in your mind that you will have a long journey to the city of Success. You will travel across thousands of miles before you can get there. As it is located so far away from your abode, you will spend the rest of your life journeying, always keeping up with the many routines. Only a very few people would give their all on this journey. Once their comfort zones are drawn, some joiners of this life challenge won’t go on any further. Columbus didn’t just sail; rather, he sailed west. To succeed in life is to stick to the goal at all costs; the very key to an achievement that the quitters and failures in our midst don’t possess.
