I am often amazed at the knowledge, insight and creativity of children. We, as parents or parenting persons, feel we need to educate, lead, explain, and protect our children.  And of course this is true.  But we also need to LISTEN to them.

It is amazing what you can learn when you listen. We parenting persons often make the mistake of relating to our children as they were 6 months or a year ago. Our parenting does not keep up with their growth. It is important that we frequently how we see our kids and adjust our parenting techniques to who they are today and who they will be in 6 months. We want to be parenting into the future, not holding them back and relating as though they were 6 months or a year younger than they are which can be the source of much anger in kids.

There is a story in Luke's Gospel about Jesus when he was 12. The family was in Jerusalem for the Passover and started to return home. Thinking Jesus was with extended family and friends, his parents did not miss him until evening. They returned to Jerusalem  and three days later found him in the Temple "sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents say him they were astonished."

We were having a family birthday dinner recently. We were talking about the war, politics, etc. Our 18 year old grandson then shared his views about the Iraq war, the role of religion, the role of oil, and the unique history of Iraq. Clear, thoughtful, well articulated ideas. We were astonished. We had not been listening carefully to his growing up these past few years.

My 11 year old granddaughter was bored this past rainy Saturday. She found some pictures of our summer vacation at Cape Cod and decided to make a video from them. She scanned them, created careful fade ins and fade outs, dubbed in background music, and burned these onto a CD. I am amazed. I have no clue how she did it and the end product is brilliant. When asked if she learned this in school, she replied, "No, I figured it out for myself."

Kahlil Gibran said "Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth."

Sometimes the greatest gift we can give them is to listen to them, love them, and learn from them.