Twenty years ago, a classmate told me, “When I grow up, I wanna be a doctor, like my old man.”
I nodded. “Mm-hmmm… I see.”
In turn, he asked, “What do you wanna be?”
“Me?” I gave a thought. “Build a family, I guess.”
He laughed out loud. Of course, the idea of building a family – get married, have children and rear them up – is completely out of the reach of fourth-grade students.
But two decades after that very conversation, I know exactly that I get what I want – and that I want it right from the start, ever since I was a child.
Many people don’t actually realize which things should come first in their list of priorities, thus sometimes we run into those workaholics who keep racing their lives without even knowing their clear destination or aim. There’s nothing wrong with pursuing careers or establishing one’s lifetime achievements. But the underlying question is: What are you doing it for?
Sean Covey (son of author Stephen Covey) wrote in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens, that at the brink of death, no one would think if only they had spent more time at the office. Touché!
Achievements and fulfilling one’s destined role in life is important. Yes. But there are more valuable and irreplaceable things that should come first.
One of the greatest needs of mankind is regeneration. We hand down our wisdom, knowledge, understanding, culture and character to the next generation. Without regeneration, we would only be toiling in vain under the sun. Without successors to carry on our names and the work of our hands, all we do will end up meaningless and vaporize in the course of time. Thus, the future investment we should really make lies in our children. It is more important to show greater care and attention on what’s happening in our homes instead of what’s piling on our office desks.
To conclude, David Roper, one of the writers of the devotional Our Daily Bread, wrote that children “are our lasting legacy – an investment we’ll never regret!”
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