A capital investment...

Sometimes we get a bit unsure or even scared when it comes to bringing up our children. We can obstruct the growth of life too. We can, often unwittingly, put a “stranglehold” on life’s development.

You hear people say things like, “Is this really safe?” or, “Isn’t this too risky?” You can also regularly hear the standard “killer comments” like, “This will never work” or, “We have never done it like this before”. You hear this at home, in schools and work-places, even in parish communities.

If anyone is serious about forming the human heart, they need to train themselves in using a constructive language that promotes life’s growth.

Comments like, “Listen, you can do this” or, “Go for it” are worth their weight in gold. If a child can do something on his or her own – then they should be allowed to do it on their own. In this way, you are trusting the life developing in them.

When he spoke about children and families, Fr Kentenich would often call children the biggest and most important “capital investment” you can make. You are investing in the potential of another human being. This  investment is physiological, moral, religious and biological. It means that, as parents, we invest everything for the life in our children.