(Clearwisdom.net) I just read the article entitled, "Striving Forward in Cultivation Together with a Young Dafa Disciple" (http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2008/11/3/101965.html) which was published on the Clearwisdom website on November 3, 2008. I couldn't help crying when I read it. I too have a young fellow practitioner child. However, I have often become trapped by sentimentalities, and I almost ruined her. After reading this article, I started to really think about what has recently happened to us.
My daughter is eight years old, and she's in the third grade at an elementary school. I always knew she came for the Fa and she is my fellow practitioner, and therefore I should take good care of her.
Before she turned three, when she got sick, I gave her medicine. I knew she was eliminating karma, however I was very attached to her and therefore I was worried. When she was almost three, I contacted fellow veteran practitioners living nearby. I became more diligent with Fa-study and practicing Dafa exercises, and my daughter studied the Fa with me. She knew she was also a Dafa disciple, so during the past five years, she has always very determinedly studied the Fa and sent forth righteous thoughts, and she didn't take medicine when she was eliminating illness karma.
When she was about five years old, I started reading Zhuan Falun to her every day. One day, she told me about her dream, and how magnificent it is in heaven. Since she was such a small child, I had to believe that she really saw those things herself since what she described was beyond imagination. At that time, she frequently told me what she saw in her dreams. We often studied the Fa with other fellow practitioners living nearby, and sometimes I brought her with me. We have many senior fellow practitioners, and they all like my daughter very much. Some of them ask her, "What did you see? Did you see Teacher?" At that time, we all enjoyed hearing what she saw in her dreams. Sometimes, she told us what she saw. However, I recently realized that she actually didn't see that much. But unintentionally, she developed an attachment of vanity and therefore she started making up what she saw. How dangerous this was!
A few days ago, we went to another fellow practitioner's home. A new practitioner asked my daughter, "Can you see something through your celestial eye?" My daughter looked very uneasy and she didn't say anything.
That night, before she went to bed, my daughter asked me, "Mom, would a lier be sent down to Hell?" I had previously told her how dreadful Hell is, but she kept asking me this question again and again. I wondered, "Did she lie about something since she keeps asking me this?" Then she said, "Mom, please don't get mad at me if I tell you this, but I actually made up some of the things, like heavenly beauties and things that happened in Heaven that I said I saw." I was shocked. I noticed she was very nervous, so I quickly said, "You will be fine as long as you correct your mistakes and truly follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." My daughter said, "Mom, I finally managed to tell you this. Now I feel much better. Before, I was burdened as if something sat on my heart." I blamed myself for this. For so long, she had carried such a heavy burden. She didn't do very well with her school work and I always criticized her. I didn't lend her enough support at all!
Some fellow practitioners mentioned in their articles that our children are our mirrors. I thought I was strict with my daughter. I didn't let her watch TV from Monday through Thursday. On weekends, I only allowed her to watch TV programs with fewer evil elements, and I never allowed her to play computer games. She has been abiding by these rules. After I read this article, I came to realize that I didn't help my daughter spend more time on Fa-study and practicing the Dafa exercises. My home is a truth-clarification materials production center. Every day when I came home from work, I hurriedly connected to the Internet to download materials and print out articles and fliers. Since time was tight, I didn't pay much attention to her questions. I watched her exam scores closely, but I didn't really want to spend time and patience to help her. I only cared about whether she had eaten good meals or whether her clothes were fine. I was stuck in sentimentalities, and I didn't improve from the Fa.
The young fellow practitioner in that article had strong righteous thoughts. He brought Teacher's articles to his father, who was illegally imprisoned. He also clarified the truth to his classmates at school. I held strong sentimentalities towards my daughter, and I also pursued comfort and didn't like hardships. I wished everything could work out by itself. Correspondingly, my daughter didn't do very well either. Every time she went out with me, she was afraid when I took some truth-clarification materials with me. When I distributed Dafa fliers, she hurried me to leave and asked me not to do it. She didn't want me to take taxis since she was afraid I would clarify the truth to the taxi driver. Upon I thinking about all of this, I came to realize that she behaved like that because I didn't do well. While distributing fliers, I wasn't relaxed, but hasty. Therefore she was afraid that the police would arrest me. When clarifying the truth to a taxi driver, I'd have the driver let us out before we reached the destination, and then walk the remaining way to our destination, since I was afraid the taxi driver would report me. It was simply because I didn't keep righteous thoughts and righteous actions that my daughter did what she did.
I studied only Zhuan Falun and Hong Yin with my daughter. We didn't read Teacher's other Fa-lectures given in different areas. After reading the above-mentioned article, I learned that I should also read the other Fa-lectures with my daughter and help her improve from the Fa. When I came to realize my attachments, my daughter changed. Right when it was time to send forth righteous thoughts, my daughter came to me and said, "Let me send forth righteous thoughts with you today." I didn't know what to say. When I got enlightened, my child became more diligent. Of course, it was because of Teacher's help. I will study the Fa and do well with the three things that Teacher asked us to do, together with my child. I should not let Teacher down in this final stage.