FULL STRAWBERRY MOON
5 He appointed judges in the land, in
all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city, 6 and he said to them: “Take care
what you do, for the judgment you give is not human but divine; for when it
comes to judgment God will be with you.7 and
now, let the fear of the LORD be upon
you. Act carefully, for with the LORD, our God, there is no injustice, no
partiality, no bribe-taking.”
This was Jehoshaphat said to the judges that he was
appointing. Reform always includes justice. The Holy Spirit calls us to be just
and merciful to human needs. Today pray for those who are in need and may not
ask for help. Today, look for and act to address the real needs of all humans.
A
team of researchers at Arizona State University, led by evolutionary psychologist
Douglas Kenrick, has noticed that most people really like being parents.
Despite the challenges of child-rearing, Kenrick reported that the warmth, the
love, the creativity, the sense of purpose and belonging—all of these factors
and more make parenting the most enjoyable of all activities. Kenrick’s team
reported this breaking news, which is just a ho-hum factoid to loving parents,
in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. Kenrick and
his group proposed a revision to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
which takes into account our deepest biological drives. In the new Need Hierarchy, Maslow’s fifth tier need Self-Actualization
has been supplanted at the top by a motivation which Maslow hadn’t even
mentioned: Parenting.
What Is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs….and Do I Need It?
In
my undergraduate days at the University of Michigan, the darling of the Psych
Department was Abraham Maslow. A psychologist and motivational
researcher, Maslow believed that humans’ most basic needs are inborn; and he
developed his acclaimed Hierarchy of Needs in the 1950s to
explain how these needs motivate us all. According to Maslow, our most
basic needs for survival (food, water and shelter) must be satisfied before we
can turn our attention to higher-level needs such as influence and personal
development. If there is a threat to our lower-level needs (a house fire,
for example, or job loss or nationwide famine), we will no longer be concerned
about higher-level needs but will instead focus on rebuilding the base of
security that we require.
·
Biological and Physiological needs – air, food,
drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.
·
Safety needs – protection from elements, security,
order, law, limits, stability, etc.
·
Belongingness and Love needs – work group,
family, affection, relationships, etc.
·
Esteem needs – self-esteem, achievement, mastery,
independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.
·
Self-Actualization needs – realizing
personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak
experiences.
In
the 1970s, behavioral scientists slipped in two additional categories after Esteem
needs:
·
Cognitive needs (knowledge and meaning), and
·
Aesthetic needs (appreciation and search for beauty,
form).
And
in the 1990s, scientists took one more step toward a benevolent view of Need
Hierarchy by topping Self-Actualization
with an even higher need, the need for Transcendence. Once an
individual achieved personal potential (Self-Actualization), scientists
claimed, he or she would then seek Transcendence by helping another to achieve
Self-Actualization—for example, through volunteer work in a disadvantaged
community. What has emerged now, though—based on research studies conducted in
2010—is a new understanding that devoted parents find the deepest satisfaction
in shaping the hearts and souls of the children who have been entrusted to
their care. While non-parenting adults may expect the rigors of
child-rearing to be an impediment to happiness, the opposite is true:
Those who have actually experienced the joy of giving selflessly to a helpless infant
achieve a level of wellbeing that is unmatched in human experience. Those
who patiently teach a toddler to tie her shoes, or help a middle schooler to
make friends in the classroom, report greater satisfaction than do those whose
focus is personal fulfillment through career, marriage or other adult
relationship. Next in the pyramid, according to Kenrick and team, is Mate
Retention– a marriage which lasts– and before that comes Mate Attraction
(finding that special person). It would appear that all of our deepest
longings derive from the complex biological urge to reproduce.
Full Strawberry Moon
According to the almanac today we are having a Full
Strawberry Moon; plan to spend make homemade strawberry ice cream and share
with your children or grandchildren. Teach them the value of not saying a bad
word about others.
Daily Devotions
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