Children as Mirrors: How Parents' Cultivation Affects Their Children

(Minghui.org) A fellow practitioner couple would always bring their lovely daughter to our Fa study sessions.

She would quietly draw as we sent forth righteous thoughts, and would look intently at her parents from time to time – whenever her father's right hand wasn't upright, she'd put down her pencil and correct his gesture. Whenever her mother would slouch, she'd help her mother straighten her back.

The mother felt that she could definitely relate to what Master said in the “Fa Teaching Given at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference:”

“Sometimes, when kids on the mountain behave poorly, I know that their parents haven’t cultivated well.”

She and her husband took turns staying at home with their daughter while the other went out to clarify the truth at tourist spots. When it was her turn to stay at home, however, her daughter would throw tantrums, cry, and make a lot of trouble.

Originally, the mother attributed this behavior to her daughter's temperament. But when she asked her husband about it, he denied ever having a problem with their daughter – in fact, he said, their daughter would calm down as soon as Mom left. She quietly drew or played with her toys. She didn't cry at all.

“Why would she cry and not listen to you when you are at home?” her husband asked, “You must have not cultivated yourself very well.”

The mother was a little surprised to hear this; she had believed that daughters tended to act more spoiled in front of their mothers – she hadn't thought that it might have been a cultivation issue.

Recently, her husband was proven right.

One day, she was again staying at home alone with their daughter, but there seemed to be something different about the child this time.

When she asked her daughter if she wanted a snack, her daughter politely refused, saying that too many snacks wouldn't be good for her. She sang, drew, and played by herself for a long while.

She also asked if she could help Mom with housework, and ended up preparing some vegetables. She also apologized for disturbing their sleep earlier in the day, and made a flower bouquet out of pencils and paper as a gift.

However, the mother was most amazed when her child asked to listen to Master's lectures – it was the first time that her daughter took the initiative to listen to the Fa.

By the time Mom had put down her housework to get the lectures, the child had unlocked the iPad, located the right folder, and started playing the lecture – this was a first for her, as well.

When it was time to send forth righteous thoughts, the daughter told her mother that she would play by herself so that Mom could concentrate.

The mother wondered why her daughter was behaving so well today, and it was then that she realized she had been very diligent about her cultivation recently. She's done the three things well, and she would rather miss dinner than a Fa study session. She also was very focused while studying the Fa.

There's nothing else, she realized – it must be her cultivation state that brought about this change in her daughter.

Falun Dafa practitioners have the responsibility of providing good guidance to our own little practitioners, on top of doing the three things well. After all, they too came to this world to obtain the Fa, so we have to fulfill our vows of cultivating together in order to better help Master rectify the Fa.