Helping Your Child ThriveSample

SEE BEYOND

The television is, without a doubt, one of the most significant innovations in modern history. But who would have thought the inspiration for this revolutionary concept nearly one hundred years ago could serve as such a timely illustration for strong parenting?

In 1920, Philo Farnsworth was a fourteen-year-old boy. He spent his days working on his parents’ farm, but in his spare time, he liked to dabble in his primary interest: electricity.

One day, while riding behind a horse-drawn plow, he thought of the idea for what became known as television. In his mind’s eye, he envisioned the rows tilled into the soil as electron beams sweeping back and forth across a screen. The result would be a continuous succession of images, illuminated one line at a time, yet at a speed undetected by the human eye. Seven years later, in 1927, Philo brought that vision to reality and patented the world’s first fully electronic television.

There’s an important application here for us as parents. That day in the fields, Farnsworth saw past his immediate surroundings to something beyond. Instead of an old plow and row upon row of barren soil, he saw a world of possibility. Our kids need us to have the same sense of vision into their lives. Especially if your child is struggling, they need you, now more than ever, to see them through the eyes of the Lord and the plans He has for them. Look beyond the challenges that characterize their life right now and capture a vision for who they one day can be.