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Egay Uy .

LAST Sunday, I went to a Christian Church service together with my sons Jeiu, OJ and his wife Dotie, Jose, and wife Julia, as part of our regular Sunday family activity. Julia and I have not shed our Catholic faith but we also attend services of a Christian church. It keeps the immediate family intact. Another regular Sunday activity is a modest family dinner.

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I went inside the church a little late because I had to look for a parking slot in a local commercial complex, aside from the little problem the battery terminal that our ride, an old Mitsubishi Lancer, gave me that morning. Since it was merely a problem with the power supply, a little tightening of the battery clamps did the trick.

As I entered the church, the pastor was discussing about a person’s “trademark.” I don’t know if I was able to grasp everything that he said, but what stuck in my mind was his question, “What is your trademark?”

 This brought to mind the message that I have always imparted to scholars of the private firm where I used to work.  I was the chairperson of the human resource development committee of that private company so I also got to administer its scholarship program.

As my little contribution to the proliferation of good deeds beyond the generation in which they happen, I have always advised the scholars that their benefactor did not expect to the repaid.  But once the scholars came to a point in their life when they could already afford to “repay” their benefactor, they could instead help others and help spread some good deeds.

As Julia and I have always said to our sons, we as their ageing parents will not expect them to “repay” us for raising them into what they have become and as they learn to stand on their own two feet; as they learn the ropes of life.

The best that ageing parents can do, to my mind, is to continue guiding the kids walk the right paths in life. Some may choose to be wayward, but parents must never surrender, never give up, even up to the point that the kids would begin to question why their parents do not seem to get tired of being nosy and steering their lives towards the right direction.

My family is not perfect, and I am not a saint. No family and individual are.  Maybe my shortcomings in raising my family will also serve as lessons for my children when they, someday, will also be leading their own.

Life is a never-ending lesson.  Paraphrasing Robin Sharma, one of the world’s premiere speakers on leadership and personal mastery, we all must remember that in life there are no mistakes, only lessons to learn.

(Egay Uy is a lawyer. He chairs the City’s Regulatory and Complaint Board, co-chairs with the city mayor the City Price Coordinating Council, and chairs the city’s Joint Inspection Team.  He retired as a vice president of Cepalco.)

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TRAILBLAZER. Established in 1989, Mindanao Gold Star Daily aimed set ablaze a new meaning and flame to the local newspaper industry. Throughout the years it continued its focus and interest in the rural areas and pioneered the growth of community journalism.