Top 10 Tips II

Top 10 Tips for Giving Your Children Wings (and teaching them to navigate safely)

1. Pray for your child everyday - for safety, for wisdom, for their hearts and souls.
2. Give your children the freedom within the boundaries they can handle.
3. Give you fear and anxiety about your child's safety and well-being over to God.
4. Encourage your children to be a part of situations where you know they'll find success.
5. Challenge your kids to test their limits in ways that build confidence.
6. Recognize and reward your children's accomplishments, but be certain that they know your love is not based on what they do, but who they are.
7. Teach your children to trust God with their lives and their future.
8. Introduce your children to new cultures, languages, food, music, books, art.
9. Don't over schedule your child so he has no free time to be creative or explore his world independently.
10. Give you child the space and freedom to fly and entrust him to God.

I was only 12 when I left home and studied high school at UP Los Banos, Laguna.  It's about 1.5 hours travel by jeep then bus from our hometown in Rizal, Laguna.  My older sister (who was 14 then) was a batch older than me. We come home every Friday afternoon and leave very early Monday morning. We both stayed in a rented apartment with our close aunt who worked in UPLB Campus. We learned to be totally independent and responsible with our studies. We are grateful to God, that he has provided us very good friends that made our high school (and college) life easier and more fun. We've also met their families in Los Banos and somehow I felt at home away from home.

My mother is a retired public high school teacher so she really values education above anything. It must have been very hard to let her two girls go at a very young age. I remember I was very hesistant and very shy then and I really don't know what was in store for me in high school.  New school, new environment and no friends! All I know was I'm going to a very good school and that's what really matter that time. It's a chance that we can not pass up, only 160 students are accepted in UP Rural High School every year.  Even if it was difficult and more costly, it's still the best decision she ever made for us. That experience prepared me for bigger challenges in life.

For this I am very thankful to my Nanay Lita. I realized that she must have had the top 10 list above hidden in her heart long ago. She has totally entrusted us to God and the Lord has been so good to answer most (if not all) of her prayers for us. I became who I am now because my mother allowed me to spread my wings and fly on my own. I learned to value the trust that was given to me and I did my best not to let them down.

Now that I'm a mom, I fervently pray that I will also be as courageous as my mother when it comes to my own kids. To allow them to be independent yet stay by their sides to guide and support them if they fail, to be an encourager and a good friend. And I will always remember that I am chosen by God to carry our His plans for my children.