Friday 22 November 2013

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Reflection: Lesson from The Chinese Bamboo Shoot



If I may be allowed to quote this from the book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families" by Stephen Covey:

"In everything you do for your family, keep in mind the miracle of the Chinese bamboo tree. After the seed for this amazing tree is planted, you see nothing, absolutely nothing, for 4 years except for a tiny shoot coming out of a bulb. During those 4 years, all the growth is underground in a massive, fibrous root structure that spreads deep and wide in the earth. But then in the fifth year, the Chinese bamboo tree grows up to 80 feet!"

"Many things in family life are like the Chinese bamboo tree. You work and invest your time and effort, and you do everything you can possibly do to nurture growth, and sometimes you don't see anything for weeks, months or even years. But if you're patient and keep working and nurturing, that "fifth year" will come, and you will be astonished at the growth and change you see taking place."

No no, this is not for J - he is not an exasperating teenager yet :-). Nor is it for my Significant Other. It is for myself. It is so hard for me to develop patience, kindness and graciousness, as the pride, selfishness and stubbornness keep getting in the way. This is a reminder for myself not to give up on myself, but to continue to press on, and hopefully, my "fifth year" will come and that I will be a wise mom to Joshua. Let the change start with me.

It has also once again reminded me to continue with patience, perseverance and hard work in my pursue of homeschooling J and getting into a ocnsistent habit for daily devotion time with J reading the Bible. Though I am not seeing any fruit of my labor, I should just be faithful. Years later, the investment I am doing now may then surfaced out. And even if it does not give much returns, it is never a bad thing putting in all those investments and doing those things together. That in itself is a good enough return. And truly, I am enjoying the journey too :-)


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