April 2014
From the Dragons’ Den
As Lent begins and Easter events come into our minds one may, or may not, be led to give up various things in life that one enjoys. There are those who feel great virtue in denying themselves something special whilst others prefer to do something special, perhaps for others. We hear much about temptation and our resistance to this.
Observing children at Little Dragons it is interesting to see how the tiny baby develops into the crawling baby and further develops into the toddler who may begin to experience temptation. It is one of life’s hard lessons to learn that when something is ‘desired’ it is not always easy to ‘get’. We all have to learn – and many begin to learn this at an early age – that we cannot always have what we want – especially not by hitting people over the head, or snatching the desired object, or screaming, shouting, kicking or brandishing fists. I wonder how many of us wish that we could do all of these things when we don’t get exactly what we want out of life, or attain desired results.
At today’s session one toddler experienced the frustration of not achieving what he desired. He didn’t want to stick shiny stars and sequins onto a mask. He wanted to ‘wash’ the glue stick in a bowl of water formerly placed so that our little artists could wash their sticky, sparkly hands. His desire was frustrated by his carer who thought that the glue sticks did not require washing. Result – one huge tantrum – followed by said Little Dragon being taken off home early, hopefully having learned a hard lesson – we do not always get exactly what we want out of life, or attain desired results.
Hopefully in the wider world there are sensible beings able to help to teach those who feel it is their right to have their own way regardless of the effect on others that this is not so. Sadly, when we read or watch the news programmes it seems that this is almost impossible.
However, one hopes that we in our small corner, can do our best to resist the seemingly inbuilt need for ‘self at all costs’ as we strive to serve the best interests of others before our own.
Not easy – so – good luck!! Val Butterworth
