勇敢之根

在我们生活越来越好的同时，对我们的孩子我们也越来越溺爱，可这就是真正的对他们好吗？希望这则小故事能让我们有些收获。

When I was growing up， I had an old neighbor named Dr. Gibbs. He didnt look like any doctor Id ever known. He never invited us to play in his yard， but he was a kind person.

When Dr. Gibbs wasnt saving people， he was planting trees. He had a large field and wanted to make it a forest.

The good doctor had some interesting ideas about planting trees. He never watered his new trees. Once I asked why. He said that watering plants spoiled them， and that if you watered them， each baby tree would grow weaker and weaker， so you had to make things difficult for them and picked out the weaker trees early on.

He talked about how watering trees made for shallow roots， and how trees that werent watered had to grow deep roots in search of water under the earth by themselves. Deep roots were very important.

So he never watered his trees. Hed planted an oak tree and， instead of watering it every morning， hed beat it with a rolled up newspaper. I asked him why he did that， and he said it was to get the trees attention.

Dr. Gibbs died several years after I left home. Every now and then， I walked by his house and looked at the trees that he planted twenty-five years ago. Theyre big and strong now. I planted some trees a few years ago and carried water to them for a whole summer. After two years of caring too much， whenever a cold wind blows in， they shake a lot.

Every night before I go to bed， I check on my two sons. I often pray that their lives will be easy. But lately Ive been thinking that its time to change my prayer. I know my children are going to face difficulties. Theres always a cold wind blowing somewhere in life， so what we need to do is to pray for roots that reach deep into the brave heart， so when the rains fall and the winds blow， they could face it bravely and wont be beaten down.

在我成長的过程中，我有一位老邻居，他叫吉布斯医生。他和我认识的其他医生不一样。他从来没有邀请我们去他的庭院里玩耍，但他是一个善良的人。

吉布斯医生不是在治病救人，就是在种树。他有一块很大的地，他想把这块地变成一片森林。

这位好医生对种树方面有一些有意思的想法。他从来不给树浇水。有一次我问他为什么，他说给新种的树浇水是溺爱它们。如果你给它们浇水，每棵小树苗就会越长越弱，所以你必须让它们在逆境中生长，尽早挑出病秧子。

他接着谈到：给树浇水，树根就浅；不浇水，它们就只能自己在地底深深扎根，根扎得深很重要。

所以他从来不给他的树浇水。他种了一棵橡树，不过每天早上都不给它浇水，相反，他用卷起来的报纸敲打这棵橡树。我问他为什么这样做，他说这样是为了引起橡树的注意。

我离开家几年后，吉布斯医生去世了。我时常从他的房子前面走过，看看他25年前种的那些树，它们现在已经长得又大又壮。几年前，我也种了几棵树。整个夏天，我都抬水过去浇灌它们。经过两年的精心照料，可每次冷风呼啸时，它们还是摇晃得很厉害。

每天晚上睡觉前，我都会去看一下我的两个儿子。我总是祈祷他们的生活会一帆风顺。但是后来我想，是时候该改变我的祈祷了。我知道我的孩子将来会面临困难。人生路上总会有冷风呼啸，所以我们要祈祷的是，勇敢之心在他们心里深深扎根，这样，当狂风暴雨来临时，他们都能勇敢面对，不被打倒的。