(Minghui.org) My daughter was born on May 13, 1999, and her mother and I divorced in 2004, before I started to practice Falun Dafa. My ex-wife had custody of our daughter. Because I was busy with work, I didn't take care of my daughter and neglected her education. My daughter was in junior high school in 2011.
My Daughter's Predicament
My ex-wife called me in September 2011 and asked me to go to my daughter's school to meet with her teacher. I didn't know anything about what would be discussed until I got to the school.
Being in a single-parent family situation for all these years, my daughter had become very introverted and only opened up and spoke to people she knew well, such as parents and classmates. When there were new people around, she became mute.
Being selectively mute was not a problem when she was in elementary school, but when she went to a different school in junior high, it became a serious problem. She didn't raise her hand in class to speak. Even when she was called on by the teacher, she lowered her head and kept quiet. She didn't participate in group exercises and had refused to stick out her hands and feet.
Meeting with the school psychologist and having a physical exam had no effect. The school--and even her grandmother--suggested she transfer to a special school that serves physically and mentally challenged children.
Realizing My Negligence As a Parent and Practitioner
After witnessing how my child spent her days at school, I wept uncontrollably.
I did my job legally by making regular child support payments, but I am a Falun Dafa cultivator and I am supposed to look within using the Fa principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to measure myself. I knew nothing was coincidental. Teacher's lectures on how to balance family and work immediately came to my mind. I recognized that I was at fault, that I had neglected my child.
She was born on World Falun Dafa Day and certainly came for a major reason. As a Dafa practitioner, I knew I had to take charge because only Dafa could change her. Using ordinary principles to deal with this issue wouldn't do. I knew this was an opportunity that Teacher gave me to make up for my shortcoming, so I decided to withdraw her from her school and brought her back to Changsha with me.
Dafa Changes Her
I tried to teach my daughter the Falun Dafa exercises. At first, she didn't want to do them, nor did she want to read the Fa teachings. I knew this was because she had been influenced by the propaganda at school, which was like poison in her mind.
I then recalled that Teacher once said in a Fa lecture that everyone was motivated by something when they first obtained the Fa. I realized I had to find that motivation for her. I came up with an idea: I told her that, if she wanted to see her mother in Shenzhen, she had to listen to me read the book Zhuan Falun once.
I made time to read to her every day. I would occasionally pause to ask her about the content to ensure that she was actually listening. After a while, she began reading the book herself. When we were finished reading Zhuan Falun the first time, I noticed some changes in her.
She seemed to understand what Falun Dafa was--at least the surface meaning of how to be a good person. She was less timid and more open.
About three months later, when she returned to her mother's home, she could recite Lunyu and remember “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” She had also withdrawn from the Communist Party Young Pioneers. Whenever I called her, I reminded her to say, “Falun Dafa is good” silently. She seemed to be able to do it.
My Daughter Does Well at Her New School
I helped my daughter look for a school in Changsha in May 2015. The process went smoothly, as I submitted her application with a mindset similar to how it is mentioned in the Fa:
“If something is yours, you will not lose it. If something is not yours, you will not have it even if you fight for it.” (Zhuan Falun)
She was assigned to a good school. I knew that this was a reward for obtaining Dafa. The result was exactly like Teacher said,
“...with one person practicing, the whole family benefits...” (Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference in Australia)
My daughter moved to Changsha in June 2012 and still lives with me.
My daughter has done well at school since she moved to Changsha, including with some military training and in a physical education setting. Although she is still a quiet participant in class or when someone unfamiliar is around, she is a perfectly normal teen among her classmates and roommates. She is among the top in her class academically. She is currently in grade 10.
These last five years, I have been teaching my daughter with a cultivator's mentality. She perceives Dafa positively, and I believe that Dafa has already taken root in her heart. Before I submitted this sharing, I sought her advice and approval, and she happily agreed to let everyone know how she has benefited from Dafa.
