A lesson on parenting: Father and son tread water 15 hours overnight in the Atlantic with help from Buzz Lightyear

Father and son tread water 15 hours overnight in the Atlantic with help from Buzz Lightyear

This is an inspiring story about parenting.

Time and time again, as parents we are caught up in the tide of life. Sometimes the tide gets too overwhelming that we begin to lose faith. Tides come in different forms, it could be stress of parenting itself or a work/financial problem, and there are those tides of real physical danger much like in the news above.

If you were the parent in this news, yourself and your son - two tiny specks in an infinite pool of deep blue and dangerous waters, to see your son slowly drift away while you just stare in utter helplessness would break your spirit faster than you could blink your eye.

Most parents in the same dire situation would swim themselves to death and possibly hold on for as long as humanly possible to provide an anchor or a floater for his/her kid til help arrives. Even those that cannot swim would probably instantly become expert swimmers. There are others who might just scream till the vocal chords give in, others will just cry and pray for a miracle. And there are others who decide to stay calm in the midst of chaos and provide inspiration.

There are three things that can be learnt from this... (1) as parents, we never should ever pass on our fears to our children; (2) sometimes, no matter how hard we protect our kids, there can only be so much we all can possibly do; and (3) in situations when all hope is lost, trust in the God-given strength of your children and believe that anything that inspire them will help them make it through life.

To find an inspiration from Buzz Lightyear in a life and death situation might sound strange and, to some extent, stupid. But it also shows great courage and trust - trust in the caring hands of the Creator that He always is around to guide and protect our children in times when we cannot. It is this faith that gave the parent the calm he needed to make sure his son does not smell fear. It is this faith that gave the parent the divine inspiration to turn a life and death situation into an adventure where his kid is the hero with superhuman abilities. And in the end, it is the same faith that saved them both.

So the next time your kid watches a cartoon or an animated movie, pay attention and try to understand their inspiration. It is in these precious parent-child moments that we will come to know how the two seemingly different worlds, one of fictious magical adventures and another of real life miracles, are intertwined.

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