My friend and mentor wrote this. I just had to share:
As human beings, we have the incredible blessings of a fantastically designed body and brain and the ability to develop a powerful mind within the structure of our brain. It is amazing that a child’s heart starts beating in the womb about three weeks after its conception. What a series of miracles come together to form the life of a new and absolutely unique human being!!
Certainly the mother and father of a new child have no knowledge of how to build a heart, a brain, an arm, a digestion system, an eye, an immune system or any other part or function of a human being!! The miracle of a child’s fantastic creation is a testament to a powerful force in the universe which many call Source, God, or Creator. And miraculously, every new and unique child has a very complex genome system. We now know that 99.9% of all human genomes are identical for all human beings who have ever been born anywhere on planet earth. All humans are FAMILY if we mean by FAMILY having a tremendous amount in common, at least at the structural genome level.
A child’s brain weighs about three-quarters of a pound at birth and reaches a maximum weight of about three pounds at age twelve. Fully 17% of all of the billions of neurons in a child’s brain are connected at birth (by NATURE). Therefore, by NURTURE, the remaining 83% of all of the billions of neuron connections are formed over the lifetime of the child. The fastest rate of growth of the neuron connections occurs from birth to five years old, the most critical period of NURTURE. Additional neuron connections occur throughout a person’s lifetime. The pre-frontal cortex of the brain is the section which controls wise decision-making skills is far from fully developed at age twelve, as parents of teens can well attest. At the present, medical research has found that humans are capable of building new neuron connections in their brains throughout their lives.
A human being’s mind is developed within the brain and contains facts, information, experiences, knowledge, memories, fears, confidence, human-to-human relationship skills, fantasies, creativity, imagination, and so on. Parents, the child’s first teachers in the first five years of their lives, have a fantastic influence on the early development of a child’s mind. Children are copycats, and therefore they learn incredibly from the good and bad examples of their role models - their parents. Parenting is a very great honor and a very great responsibility.
Researchers have found that the most critical variable that determines a child’s success in school is not their intelligence at age six, but rather their self-discipline and self-control. Self-control is a skill generally learned in the first five years of life with the help of calm, loving and nurturing parents. Children depend on the role modeling and parenting that they receive from their parents, especially the NURTURE in their first five years of life.
The major milestones in a successful life are: a) learning to love and be loved, b) learning self-control and good behavior, c) learning kindness and respect for others, d) learning to listen, speak, read, write, think analytically, and think creatively, e) graduating from high school, f) deciding on a career path, g) going to college, h) getting a good job, i) getting married, and then j) having children with two loving parents raising them.
(A single parent has an extremely challenging role in life for the adult and the child. Therefore, great care should be taken in the decision making about sexual activity in the child-bearing years. If a child is conceived and only one parent is willing to raise him or her, adoption by a married couple should be seriously considered.)
Our heart, brain and entire bodies are truly miracles!! As human beings we are truly blessed. Then, throughout our lives from babies, to toddlers, to children, to teens, to adults, to parents, and to seniors, we are nurturing ourselves and being nurtured to seek WISDOM. WISDOM MESSAGES are the powerful lessons that we learn in the inevitable ups and downs of life and that we choose to apply to the way we live the rest of our life. Positive and negative experiences in life, once reflected upon, can help us to define the WISDOM MESSAGES that we choose to be our self-talk and our decision-making guide for the rest of our life.
The human use of human beings is in our WISDOM MESSAGES. Wisdom has two components: “Human-to-Human Relationships” and “Imagination”. No machine or computer can teach us about the power of positive human relationships. We need to experience and cherish love, kindness, respect, compassion, friendship, companionship, and so on. Having a goal of cherishing and nurturing our human-to-human relationships, leads to valuable personal WISDOM MESSAGES.
Imagination is another source of human wisdom. Imagination is developed in the brain and becomes part of our mind, our total human understanding of facts, information, intelligence and wisdom. “Human Imagination”, Albert Einstein stated, “is even more powerful than Human Intelligence.” New principles of human relationships, new technologies, new managerial methods for organizations – all imaginative new approaches to living a useful life on earth, come from our own imagination and from learning from the imagination/creativity/fantasy experiences of other humans.
Miracles and Wisdom are our legacy from our Creator. We are certainly blessed, and then we create our future by our free will and choices. Parents, as the first teachers of a child, greatly help their children develop self-discipline and self-control. Parents’ three most precious gifts to their children are Time, Unconditional Love and the Love of Lifelong Learning.
Prepared by: Bill Peter, Consultant/Futurist billpeter@billpeter.net www.2020and2035.com
6650 Vernon Hills Road Edina, MN 55436 952.933.6850
Monday, April 26, 2010
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