As I was admiring my beautiful flowers this morning, a wonderful epiphany was dropped into my brain. It has been said that everything we need to know in life we can learn from nature. So I started thinking, "What does nature show me in these flowers?" The first thing that came to mind was that you cannot hurry a flower. It blooms when the time is right. I suppose I could peel apart the bud and try to hurry it along, but it wouldn't look right, it would hang all wrong, not the way it was designed to be. It would never achieve it's full life if I robbed it of each stage it needs to go through. It's beauty would be wasted. If you wait for the right time, you are rewarded with the most beautiful blossom.
The same holds true for our children. We cannot hurry them from one developmental stage to the next. If they don't read good at 7, it doesn't mean they are bad readers, it just means their brain isn't ready to bloom in this particular area yet. If they aren't walking by 1, nothing is wrong with them, they aren't slow or behind...their body and brain are just not ready to put all those mental and physical sequences together. When the time is right, your child blossoms. Let them. Don't hurry them. Enjoy each phase, stage, and thing they can do right at this moment. That's when it's the most beautiful.
We appreciate the flower more when we've nurtured it and watched it grow from a tightly closed bud to a brilliant, open flower. We keep it watered and in the sun. It's actually love and care that encourages the blooming. The beauty and design behind the whole process is awe inspiring and should never be forced, just enjoyed.
