PODCAST - Press sideways triangle below to
listen
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A
St.
Mark, Fallston
November
19, 2017
Fostering
the Gifts of One Another
By (Rev.
Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
The Giftedness of Children
There is a story
about a young man named Brian.
Brian always loved
to tinker with mechanical devices. As a
6-year old, he took apart a remote control toy car.
At age 9, Brian
helped his dad fix the lawn mower. In
high school, he spent hours rebuilding computer equipment.
And as a young
adult, Brian had already become a sound technician for a theatre company. His parents steadily encouraged him from a
very young age.
But, Brian, in his
school years, was never labeled as “gifted.”
The definition of the “gifted child” was traditionally limited to the
top 5 to 10% of children who achieved high test scores and excelled in school.
No question, these children
are gifted, but, there may be hundreds of other ways for children to be gifted. Today, educators and psychologists tell us
that nearly all children have special gifts.
Children may display
their giftedness through words, numbers, music, sports, technical skill, social
interaction, intuitive insight, creativity, a quick wit, and on it goes. Many professionals now say that all children have
gifts and they just vary from one child to another.
Our Gifts and the Gospel
I first came across these
insights in an article that is entitled Fifty
Ways to Bring Out Your Child’s Best.
Well, I am seeing
today’s gospel parable today from a slightly different perspective. Instead of reflecting on our use of our own
gifts, I am thinking about how we can encourage others, especially children,
grandchildren, and godchildren in using their gifts.
The article that I cited
gives 50 ways to bring out the best, to bring out the gifts in our children. This morning I want to share just 5 of these
with you.
Five
Ways to Bring Out the Gifts
First, pay attention to what really
interests your child. Be attentive to
what captures your children’s attention in a positive way.
These interests will say a lot about where their gifts lay. By being attentive to this, you are in effect
letting that special child of yours discover their own giftedness.
In today’s gospel parable, the number of talents – 5, 2 or
1 – does not just mean having more or less talent than others. Instead, these numbers can represent
different kinds of gifts and our task is to help our children – and even other
adults – identify their own unique gifts.
Second, encourage your children, but do
not push or pressure them too much. If
we do that, they may become too stressed or even not work to develop their gifts.
The master in today’s parable does not pressure. He simply gives his servants the gifts and the
opportunities to use them.
Third, allow your children to make some
mistakes. If they have to do everything
perfectly, they may never take the risks necessary to discover and develop their
gifts.
It’s good to assist a child in realizing a mistake and
learning from it. But first, we need to allow
some appropriate freedom to make mistakes.
And the fourth rule is connected with this:
don’t criticize your children in a way that puts them down. Instead, give them encouragement and
constructive criticism.
These two rules – 1) allowing your children to make some mistakes
and 2) not putting them down – are borne out in the third servant in the gospel
parable. He feels afraid and intimidated
and the result is that he does not use and develop his gifts.
And the fifth rule: accept your child as he
or she is. Maybe your son is musically
inclined and does not have a lot of athletic ability.
Or maybe your daughter is more into computers than
dance.
The important thing is to take our children as they are, because
that will be the best environment for using the gifts they have been given and
for becoming the persons God intended them to be.
Conclusion
So, these simple, but important rules:
Ø Pay
attention to interests
Ø Encourage them in
their interests
Ø Allow mistakes
Ø Don’t criticize
Ø Accept them as
they are
Within such an environment, children — and even adults —
will thrive with the talents God has given each of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment