A Kind Of Devotion You'll Never Regret

A true story comes from an incident which occurred during a business training seminar. To illustrate motivation, the trainer asked one of the business executives in the audience to come forward.

The trainer said, "I want you to imagine that I have placed a wooden beam across the floor here and I would like for you to walk from one end of the beam to the other end. Would you do that for $20?"

The man said that he would.

Then leader continued, "Now, I want you to imagine that I take that same beam and raise it up to the top of a forty-story building and run it across the street to another tall building. Would you still walk across the beam for $20?"

This time the man answered that he would not.

"How about for a $100?"

"No!" the man emphasized.

The trainer forged ahead. "You have a child, right?"

"Yes."

"This time, what if I were to hold your child over the edge of the building and tell you that if you do not walk across the beam I will drop your child. Would you walk across?"

Surprisingly, the father hesitated for a beat, then smiled and asked, "Which child do you have?"

The trainer, of course, was right in assuming that a parent's devotion to a child is usually greater than almost any amount of fear associated with saving that child. Most parents love their children fiercely and would do anything possible to help them.

An eastern newspaper reported that a train in Bangladesh accidentally struck a calf elephant. The mother elephant apparently became upset over the incident, for a little while later another train came along and spotted the female standing in the middle of the track. Though the engineer blasted his horn, she would not budge. When the train came to a halt, she began butting it with her head! For fifteen minutes she hammered the engine, rendering it inoperable. Once satisfied, she walked off into the jungle, stranding two hundred passengers for five hours while they waited for a replacement engine. Don't mess with her children!

Devotion to our own children is essential. Here are some ways we can channel our devotion into productive areas.

1. Devote TIME to your child. Quality time means nothing if it rarely occurs. Spend time reading, laughing, playing, exploring, learning, talking, and just sitting quietly together.
   
   
2. Devote POSITIVE ATTENTION to your child. Let her know she is important by the way you speak and listen to her.
   
   
3. Devote LOVE to your child. He is one of the most important people you'll ever have the privilege of knowing.
   
   
4. Devote ENERGY to learning how to be the best parent possible. All of our children are different and require different skills from us.
   
   
5. Devote YOURSELF, and you'll never regret the valuable investment.

~ Steve Goodier ~

[ by: Steve Goodier Copyright © 2007 (LifeSupport@yahoogroups.com) -- {used with permission} ]