Two people were living in two independent houses separated by a compound. One of them was a retired person and other one was a techie. They had planted identical saplings on either sides of the compound. The techie used to give lot of water and manure to the plants. The retired person just provided small quantity of water and little manure. The techie’s plant grew into lush green, leafy robust plant. The retired person’s plant was a near normal but much luxuriant than his neighbor’s.

One night there was a heavy rain with gusty wind. Next morning both came out to see the fate of their plants. To techie’s surprise, his plant had got uprooted where as his neighbor’s was unharmed. Techie asked the retired person as why his plant was uprooted despite such a good care where as the neighbor had hardly cared.

The retired person’s answer should be a lesson for all of us. *Look young man, you had supplied every thing a plant would need in abundance and the plant did not have to go in search of it. Your plant’s roots did not have to go down. I was supplying just enough to keep it alive. For the rest, roots had to go down into the ground to fulfill it’s needs. Since your roots were superficial, the rain and wind could easily fell it. Since my roots were pretty deeply grounded they could withstand the onslaught of the nature.

The same applies to our children too. Do we want our children to be deep rooted and grounded or with superficial roots?