Q - Hanggang saan po mananaig ang "nature" ng bata in relation to "nurture"? ED LAPIZ

 Q - Hanggang saan po mananaig ang "nature" ng bata in relation to "nurture"?

Hanggang saan mahuhubog ng nurture ang nature ng tao?

A -

Malaki ang role ng nurture. Halimbawa puede mong maibaling ang direction ng paglaki ng isang puno ---but only up to a point. Hindi natin kayang gawing korteng sanga ng mangga ang sanga ng narra.

Mayrong "nature" na likas na talaga at hindi mama-manipulate into imposed outcomes.

Ang development ng bata ay nangyayari sa interaction ng biology, environment, experience, and guidance. May role ang genes, ang brain wiring, ang temperament. May role ang home, school, culture, discipline, and love.

Pero hindi ibig sabihin na lahat kaya nang

i-reprogram ng environment. Nurture can guide, support and protect nature. Nurture can help nature mature. But nurture cannot function as recreator-god.

May mga bagay na kailangang kilalanin, igalang, at gabayan ayon sa likas na disenyo ng bata. Sabi nga ng matatanda: "Hindi mapamumunga ng santol ang puno ng mangga."

Hindi isinisilang ang bata na parang walang kalikasang dala sa loob---na parang blank page. May dala na siyang text: body, brain, temperament, sensitivities, likes, dislikes, strengths and deep personal patterns, sabi ng biology and psychology. Hindi kayang i-rewrite ng nurture ang mga ito.

So the task is not to panic, over-control, or “over protect” a child from becoming this or that---the work of nurture is not to play recreator-god.

The informed task of upbringing is to know the child--- then guide, and protect the child from harm [even the harm of over manipulation], and help the child grow safely, wisely, and humanely---according to the child's inborn nature..

Hindi kailangang takutin ang bata para tumugma sa certain desired/imposed standards. Mas kailangang kilalanin ang bata para magabayan nang tama---all the while loving and caring for the God-designed, God- created individual.

---

Psalm 139:13-16

For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s

womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and

wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place,

when I was woven together in the depths

of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in

your book before one of them came to be.

---

The child is already seen by God.

Formed by God.

Known by God.

Wonderfully made by God.

So nurture should respect God-given nature.

Nurture should assist nature and protect nature from harm. Nurture should help the child grow toward wholeness.

The Creator-obedient upbringing does not ask:

How do I force this child to become what I fearfully demand?

The better informed question is:

Who is this child before God, and how do I guide this child toward wisdom, safety, goodness, and life?

Hindi nga blank clay ang bata. May design na siya. Ang trabaho ng nurture ay hindi burahin ang design, kundi tulungan itong lumago nang tama ---to the fullest potential.

Consider Proverbs 22.6

"Train up a child in the way he should go,

And even when he is old he will not depart

from it."

This verse is better off not used to justify militant control or fear-based parenting.

“Train up a child” does not mean: force the child into the shape adults already decided.

It does not mean break the child until the child matches the group standard.

It does not mean control the child until the child becomes the preferred version of the parent, community, school, or culture.

Training is guidance, formation, wise direction ---respectful of God's "wonderful" design-creation.

Training is helping the child walk toward wisdom, truth, discipline, love, and life.

And “in the way he should go” may also remind us that the child (already) has a God-given, God-set way: a bent, a design, a path of growth that must be understood, not crushed.

So Proverbs does not cancel nature. It teaches wise nurture.

Know the child.

Guide the child.

Correct what harms.

Strengthen what is good.

Protect without over-manipulating.

Train without pretending to recreate.

Nurture should respect Nature, assist, and let it take its God-designed course.

TOWER OF BABEL : Noon at Ngayon

 TOWER OF BABEL: Noon at Ngayon

Q – What could be so wrong about the Tower of Babel project recorded in Genesis 11.1- 9? Can lessons from it have contemporary applications, especially to religious work/ministry?

A -

The "Babel instinct" is not merely the desire to build. It is the desire to be known and remembered through what is built.

“Let us make a name for ourselves.” – Genesis 11.4

That line is not a simple condemnation of planning, excellence, architecture, organization, or shared labor. Human beings must build. Families build. Communities build. Generations build.

The danger begins when the building becomes a mirror of ungodly intention.

A tower may start as shelter, but slowly become a monument.

A platform may start as service, but slowly become a throne.

A shared work may start as offering, but slowly become a signature.

Then the hidden prayer is no longer, “Let good be done.”

It becomes, “Let us be known.”

And when the project becomes conscious name-making, its methods often begin to reveal its true spirit.

It may still use beautiful language.

It may still wear respectable clothing.

It may still speak of noble causes.

But beneath the polished stone, there may be pressure, fear, concealment, and quiet cruelty. People may be used as scaffolding. The tired may be called disloyal. The wounded may be treated as inconvenience. Questions may be treated as rebellion. Pain may be hidden so the tower keeps its shine. Other perspectives may be painted as error, falsehood, or deception, so the tower could impose its "glory" above others.

And often, the tower does not only rise upward.

It also casts shadows sideways.

Anything nearby may begin to be treated as competition: another voice, another house, another worker, another light, another field bearing fruit may ba maligned to present oneself as the true and the good. Then the builders may not be content to construct well. They may feel the need to make deconstruct others ---to make the others look smaller.

So they chip at neighboring stones.

They whisper cracks into other walls.

They darken other lamps.

They pull down nearby scaffolds.

They reveal their hunger for dominance.

They may call it discernment, but it is rivalry.

They call it loyalty, but it is the worship of a name.

This is where the project becomes unlike God.

Not because it is large.

Not because it is visible.

Not because it is organized.

Not because people know its name.

But because the name has begun to demand sacrifices from insiders and casualties from outsiders.

And when a name must be protected by unkindness, defended by cruelty, enlarged by diminishing others, and preserved by the quiet demolition of perceived rivals, the tower may still stand, but its soul has already cracked.

The warning of Babel is not only that human beings may build too high.

It is that they may build a name so anxiously that they crush people beneath the weight of the tower stones.

I AM THE GATE - JESUS SAID

 

THE JESUS TREATMENT - ED LAPIZ

 

GOOD OR EVIL - MABUTI O MASAMA

 

AVOID EXTREMES

Jairus A Father Who Took Blessings Home

WHEN SICK OR DISABLED

PASKO NAMAN

OLD AGE CONCERNS - MGA ALALAHANIN PATUNGKOL SA PAGTANDA

ANG BAGYO - Anatomy of Fear