We All Have Gifts--But No One is Gifted in Every Area

I came across this parable on Susan Barton's website Bright Solutions for Dyslexia (http://www.dys-add.com/index.html).  If you are a parent, you need to read this.  It applies for all of our children whether they have identified special needs or not.  In the current culture, it seems most parents expect their children to be good at everything:  school, sports, social activities, music, etc.  But in reality, none of us are good at everything.  We all have gifts and weaknesses.  So, why as a parent do I feel like I am depriving my children when I only sign them up for one activity at a time and many other parents have their children enrolled in 4 or 5?  We need to learn to appreciate our children for who they are and help them to identify and nuture their gifts, while recognizing that no one is perfect.  The world is much more interesting due to the fact that we all bring different gifts to the table.  We don't have to run around trying to make our children into all-around stand outs.  They stand out just because of who they are.

“Parable: The Animal Story” by G. H. Reavis

Once upon a time, the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the problems of the "new world," so they organized a school. They adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming, and flying. To make the school easier to administer, all the animals took all the subjects.

The duck was excellent in swimming, better in fact than his instructor, and made passing grades in flying. But he was very poor in running. Since he was so slow in running, he had to stay after school. He also had to drop swimming to have time to practice running. This was kept up until his web feet were badly worn, which made him only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school, so nobody worried about that—except the duck.

The rabbit started at the top of the class in running, but had a nervous breakdown because of so much make-up work in swimming.

The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying class, where his teacher made his start from the ground up, instead of from the tree top down.

The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely. In the climbing class, he beat all the others to the top of the tree, but he insisted on using his own way to get there.

At the end of the year, an abnormal eel who could swim exceedingly well, and also run, climb, and fly a little had the highest average and was valedictorian.

How many of us, like the duck who is excellent in swimming and good in flying, spend a lifetime running—only to wear out our feet and in doing so, neglect our true gifts?