In response to my “Children overmedicated” blog posted last Monday, I received this comment from a teacher, which I thought was very insightful.
I’ve been thinking about the “Overmedication of children” blog since I have one building where at one time 75% of the kids were on meds for behavior control (mind-boggling isn’t it!). One of the things I’ve learned over the years is the mindset behind a lot of this is our society has come to think struggle is bad. Kids shouldn’t have to struggle to learn, parents shouldn’t have to struggle to parent, teachers shouldn’t have to struggle to teach, people shouldn’t have to struggle to live, Christian Scientists shouldn’t have to struggle and grow to be healed. Kind of interesting isn’t it? Must be a by-product of a wealthy society immersed in labor-saving pre-packaged existence.
Some interesting points…
Not that struggles are events to look forward to, or suffering should be justified, but in the everyday crucible of human existence, answers to problems don’t always come easily. It may take struggle, grappling, humbling, patience and persistence to conquer a challenge and demonstrate a worthy ideal. Modern-day society’s tendency to seek out quick fixes through the narcotic effect of medicine, absolving responsibility, and pointing fingers at others rather than at self, deprives adherents of the benefit that comes from engaging worthy moral and spiritual struggle until victory is obtained.
Jesus Christ certainly had his struggles. In Luke’s account of Jesus’ experience in the Garden of Gethsemane, he recorded, “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:40) Now that’s a mighty struggle! But his steadfast trust and faith in “God’s will be done,” reaped a grand reward—eternal life in Spirit.
Struggles are not evil. They are purifying times that turn us from wrong to right, from the flesh to Spirit, from fear to love. When embraced correctly, they heal us. We do not have to run from them in fear, but can triumph over them in Love.
The best example of “struggles are not evil” I can think of is watching a baby learn to walk. They fall down and pick themselves up a whole lot of times before they get the hang of motivating and balancing on two feet. Yes, it’s a struggle and sometimes frustrating for the child but the end result is certainly worth the effort!
The beauty of it is that they have to get it figured out for themselves. In the end mom and dad can’t walk for them. They can encourage and support as much as needed but not do it for them. I wonder why we fall away from that model as kids get older?
To above,
You have shared many words of wisdom! Thank you…
Kids are naturally rambunctious and full of energy and life. How can anyone allow such mass medication of these precious children? There has been a great deal of corrective material methods offered in the past ten years including diet and exercise that handle these problems without drugs. Read the Sentinel story about Caear the dog whisperer. He says dogs are like children; you must first allow a dog to get plenty of play and exercise before you have the right to expect them to be calm and focused to learn anything from you or the trainer. Makes sense to me. Spontaneity and exhuberance should never be seen as a pathology.
I can remember my daughter as a baby striving to roll over from her back to front. She would reach the point of her shoulder struggle then roll back again. When she finally made it, immediately she started striving for the next thing which was up-on-knees to crawl. It often comes to mind as a reference point to keep progressing, don’t wait around.
Thank you, to the contributor and to you, Evan. I have a few thoughts.
Sometimes struggle can get extreme so that you become so buried for so long, that light seems to be very distant. And I think it’s a tendency of mortal mind to take something like struggle to extremes that become frightening or overly laborious.
Striving can be taken to the extreme that it becomes a form of self-punishment and becomes destructive.
So, I appreciate that Evan inserted the words, “embraced correctly”. When struggle and striving are embraced correctly, they can be a tool for growth and for going higher spiritually, rather than being destructive and frightening.
Lastly, the idea of pre-packaged and convenient lives. I’ve lived in Russia where convenience certainly doesn’t exist as well as pre-packaged foods. A lot of time gets eaten up in simple tasks. It had its advantages and disadvantages. But my quality of life was, in some respects, better with less of the distractions that we have in this country.
Being in a society such as ours where we value time and convenience certainly does bring its share of difficulties which we have to work through and solve so that we all can have quality lives.
And I think that can only come by devoting more time, energy and thought to spiritual reasoning and living. I think that’s the natural course to go from where our nations is at this time.
the baby learning to walk! How lovely. I will treasure this. you don’t teach babies anything. you just do it correctly in their presence. When my daughter was learning to talk and she would say a word all garbly, I would say, YES! and then repeat the word correctly and distinctly. Thank you for this reminder. I will use it in my spiritual practice~
If you are struggling with something, you must be going about things incorrectly. All power and might belong to God.
Jesus struggled! More than once…