Teach a Child to Grow and He Will Learn to Love, Contributed by @gloglo

Love to me is likened to a green leaf. When you do not water the leaf, it can never flourish. If the soil in which it is planted is not rich enough, it can never get the necessary nutrients to grow. So it is with human life.

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At the moment of birth, the child is cared for and is expected to be nurtured until they are old enough to cater for themselves. The power to love genuinely is something that we have by default, but this has to be guided here on earth in order for us to not lose the power when there are opportunities to do so.

To care for others is simple but might not be what everyone can do. The ability to serve others can be really difficult especially when you aren't groomed to do so from the start of life. The world is in dire need of those that have the welfare of others mindset

I have thought that to teach a child to care for others, let him learn to grow a plant in the garden or by the corner of the home. This I have tested on my little brother and so far the level of his care for others has greatly improved.

So I decided that I wanted my little brother to care more and exhibit more love. I found out that he had the tendency of caring for others but it was not as it should be. He was careless about certain things and made me worry too much. He was careless too in handling his belonging because to me he didn’t know the pain it took to buy them. That was not love and I wanted him to start learning to think of how people will feel when he did something that would hurt them.

He didn’t do any of these things deliberately. In fact, he is very innocent about certain things. I decided to make him understand caring about other people’s feelings and loving them by deciding not to make them feel unhappy due to some innocent and careless behavior.

We decided to do a little exercise

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I gave him a pot of soil and some tomato seedlings to plant and I did planted some too. I told him that if his must grow he must be very attentive as tomato seedlings are very fragile and could die out of the hot sun since they are still in the nursery. We agreed to water our plants and take care of them until they had grown. Amazingly, he grew extremely interested. He was so keen on seeing what will happen after a few weeks of watering and what these seedlings would turn into.

I watched him every morning, before he went to school, he would make sure that his pot of seeds was watered. After some time, few weeds started growing and he made sure to weed. I was so happy with this outcome. It became the norm for him that as soon as he returned from school, his pot of plant was the first place he visited. This made me so happy as it was my way of communicating what real love and care are to my little brother.

Well at the end of the day, these tomato plants could not bear fruits and withered off. He was really sad about this but I was very excited to learn the tools I needed. Well, long story cut short, these were what I used to explain to him how much we care about people. They are innocent and do not know the pain we go through. I told him how good it is to also love the people around us and see the pain they go through for us.

It worked!

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At the end of the day, my brother was able to relate to me and his attitude concerning things around him began to change. He saw things just the way they were supposed to be seen and started caring more about others than himself. Recently, he had some of his clothes given to a classmate of his whom he felt needed them too. Not that he had excess but sharing was a part of love. I was very fulfilled.

I think that is what the world is looking for. People who put others first before anyone else. This was very important to me because the world can only get better and love is the backbone of any change we might want.

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The world is really a messed up place now because a lot of people tend to put their own interest before others. No one believes in service to others anymore. That is why I took out time to show my little brother how to care for people through growing new things.

I used growing a plant because love is about the growth of others and not us alone. If we say we love people, we must be willing to put them first and cater to their needs even before we see our own needs. A plant was the easiest as he had to groom and nurture and eventually when it withered he really felt like his efforts were in vain. This was a great pain to him. I told him the happened because there may have been something he failed to do right.

I can see a lot of change in him now and if a few number of kids of his age could be eager to love then we are sure of a world full of loving and caring children who will affect the world positively.

Conclusion

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I secretly caught him going back to plant flowers on his own without my reminders. My heart was about to blow out that fateful day but I held myself together. Every little thing works, especially when you are training a small child.

Whatever you teach a child is what sticks with him, good or bad. “Teach a child well and when he grows he will never depart from it.” I was able to understand the meaning of those words and that was wonderful to me. Remember that when children are treated right and trained well they will forever carry this wherever they are and help other people too.

Good morals are contagious. You must know, every child should be able to affect and influence the world and his immediate environment positively. That starts with​ what they learned from parents and guardians. Charity begins at home. Mind you, they are prone to anything at the young stage of their lives and can pick everything they see. It is left for us to imbibe the real and quality training into them.

source : Teach them to help grow the world in love

I dedicate this to every parent/guardian out there who try hard to teach their children a ​real love for the world and for others. The change begins now!

Thank you for reading.

Image credits: PIXABAY.