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Reflections on My Child's Behavior after He Fell Down

July 5, 2004 |   By a Dafa practitioner from Jilin City, Jilin Province, China

(Clearwisdom.net) My child, Fasheng, is already 18 months old. One time he fell and hit his forehead on a stick. As I picked him up I noticed that his forehead was red, and I saw tears in his eyes even though he tried very hard not to cry. I talked to him while gently rubbing his forehead, "It will not hurt after I rub it. It was the stick's fault, later mom will punish it." This is a traditional way people from northern China use to calm their children. To my surprise, my child walked up to the stick, gently rubbed it and said in a tearful voice, "Rub, rub."

I was shocked. How come he did not hit the stick, but instead, he gently rubbed it. Isn't this Teacher trying to enlighten me? I immediately realized that I was doing something wrong. I always knew that, as a practitioner, I was not supposed to educate my child this way. But I thought that since my son is still little, he would not understand it anyway. I thought I just needed to calm him down and wait until he grows older so I can teach him the principle behind the concept of "blame yourself for falling down" or in other words, to look inside oneself when encountering difficulties. So I never paid attention to these types of incidents and let them go by again and again. Today, through my child's behavior, I suddenly awoke and realized that the responsibility of Dafa practitioners in teaching their children is not a simple matter.

A child is also a sentient being in the universe and he came for the Fa. I should teach him based on the Fa principles even when he is little and have him assimilate to Dafa and break away from human notions. Our behavior and the words we say are not just things left for the future. We shoulder great tasks and responsibilities, and we must perform them all well.