A wise and highly successful father once said: "Never let your children win. A truly competitive father never lets his children win, because he loves them. Every time you give your children something that you did not have growing up, you take from them something you did have."
After pondering this advice, I add two footnotes: 1) Never say never or always, and 2) the preface words "A truly competitive father" are key. In general, I tend to agree. Heed the resistant, knee-jerk inclination to do things differently than your parents did: "I want to give or do this or that for my child because I wished my parents had done this for, or given that to, me."
It is much like traveling back into time to rescue a 3-year-old who died, and thus changing history. The now rescued child who should have died matures and marries. His or her spouse would have married someone else. That child has children that never would have been born. And the list of ramifications is endless.
With strengths, the implosion effect is possible. A coddled, always rescued child might lack incentive to develop his or her strengths. As an adult he or she lacks drive. A unique business that might have formed to help others is never created. That child ends up lost and searching for meaning. The potential consequences are measureless.
Reviewing strengths in light of insightful Deuteronomy 1 can be eye-opening. With potentially unneeded rescuing, would I possess my key strengths? Ninety-nine point nine percent (99.9%) of the desert-circling Israelites seemed unfazed by God's goodness and Almighty Fatherhood.
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