Meditation (8-7-11) > 묵상 (Meditation)

"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." This verse is from the Exodus 20:17 and is the last of The Ten Commandments that God gave us to follow.

As many of you may be aware, there is a parent education class that many of our fellow church members have been attending in order to become better parents. It’s led by Dr. Oh, who I might add, has been doing a fantastic job in teaching us to become a better parent and a better person. After every weekly session, she assign homework. One of the homework assignment was to spend some quality time with the kids. So one evening, we had a family walk around our neighborhood. During the walk, my wife asked our daughter Lorin a question, "by the way, did you finish your math homework?" Lorin replied, "no, not yet." My wife then added "how come your friend finished her homework already but you haven't?" On the surface these were very harmless questions but the response from Lorin suggested otherwise. Lorin became very upset because she felt she was being compared to other kids once again. I explained to Lorin that mommy wasn’t aware that her homework assignment was different from her friend’s, but it didn’t help. Lorin then asked “how would mommy feel if I compared her to her friend’s mom?”

As parents, without thinking, we often compare our kids’ intelligence, personalities, or appearance to other kids. By human nature, we always want or desire what is best and what other people have. We don’t always think about the consequences of making such comparisons. Just imagine if ours kids constantly compared us to other parents. Some of the comparisons might be like: My friend lives in a big house - how come we live in a tiny apartment? My friend’s parents drive a nice sports car - how come we have a beat up car? My friend’s parents always seem to get along so well - how come you guys are always arguing and fighting?

We’re constantly making comparisons, both consciously and subconsciously. It’s part of human nature. But we must remind ourselves that each person is different and possesses different skills, talents, and personalities. Each person has his/her own unique strength and weaknesses. Although we are all created equal, we are all unique in different ways.

One last thing I want to mention is that when spending quality time with your love ones, try not to mix business with pleasure.