by Mark Hansen

Created on: March 06, 2009   Last Updated: March 08, 2009

There is a song called "The Greatest Love of All" which starts off with the lyrics:-

"I believe the children are our are future Teach them well and let them lead the way"

The blessing of children is that they are a extension of us. A continuation of humans as a species. A perpetuation of our genes, of our behaviours, habits, personalities and skills. Of course every child is unique but when you look at your child carefully, you see aspects of yourself, your spouse, your parents and grandparents.

My own daughter has skills that came easily to her, like playing the piano, using computers, learning math, speaking languages, and writing stories. These are skills that her mother and I possess and she has inherited. But because the world is quite different now to when I was young, she has adapted those skills and added some of her own. She is proficient on the internet and belongs to many social networking web sites. I, on the other hand, have been slow to change and embrace those new ways.

What other blessings do children bring us? They have great imagination and playfulness, so interacting with them can bring us out of a very logical and dull world into their world of fairies, monsters and magic. I remember walking with my child in the forest one day. We sat on a rock and all of a sudden she whispered, " Daddy, there's fairies over there." I slowly turned around, so as not to scare the fairies away. A short distance from my head was a tightly bunched group of flying insects which did look a like tiny fairies. To see the world through your child's eyes is truly an "eye-opener". They see what you have forgotten to see. Forgotten through years of schooling and work and perhaps worldly cynicism. It is important to teach children about the world, but I am all for doing it in a way that doesn't destroy their imagination. It is that imagination that they can bless us with when they are adults, and create new inventions, stories, solutions to social and environmental problems.

Children, with good teaching and wise, warm, nurturing, can lead us into a positive future. With their openness and joy of life they remind us of how we used to be as children. A time when anything seemed possible. They bring new skills into the world and adapt and change society as they grow into adults where they can build us a new future. Children can teach us a thing or two about faith, hope, love and life.

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