In getting an idea to write about in my column, my consideration today came to me as I thought about both my mother and father. My father has been deceased for nearly 21 years. The older I get, the more I look at myself (in the mirror), as well as examine other characteristics of my personality (like temperament, mannerism, and behavior) to see which of my parents I am most like. I have learned from study, observation, and my own personal experience which of the two I am more like. Being a male does not automatically make one more like his father in his distinct qualities like temperament, personality, and even facial features and color of eyes. The same rule would apply also to a female. Of course, as I stated, I must admit when I look in the mirror, I see my father’s likeness looking back at me so as to say, “Boy, you are the spitting image of me!” Though that is an undisputable fact when it comes to my facial features, I am also much like my mother when it comes to some of the intangible attributes of character and personality. I believe that this is the case for all of us. We have inherited the best and worse from both of our parents through genetics and environmental influences. Deny it if you wish, but you are a living expression of much of the good, the bad, and even the ugly that came from both parents. God be praised that we can accentuate the good and positives and eliminate the bad and negatives. I want to consider some areas where we were the recipients of both good and bad qualities from our parents in both body and personality.
The Body and
Physical Aspect
Since I have already covered much of what we received from our parents when it comes to appearance by my personal situation, there are other physical things (both bad and good) that genetics bequeathed us from and through our parents. Believe it or not, good genes play an important role in our physical health and longevity, along with other factors like diet, exercise, drinking enough water, and getting the proper amount of sleep on a nightly basis. Many people were given a great blessing from God physically through their genes. Then there is the reality of the negative that we can not overlook, that most of us must deal with that came from our genes through our parents and even grandparents. Often chronic sicknesses like cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other diseases were generational and transmitted from parents to their children. I have discovered that this was the case for my siblings and me on both sides of the parental dichotomy and equation going back a few generations. Things like obesity, male pattern baldness, and even gum and tooth disease can be derived from genes from either one or both of your parents. So, it is truly a fact that we are benefitted by the best, but must contend through discipline to overcome the worse that we received from both parents physically.
Intelligence Quotient and Special Abilities
Social scientists, like psychologists, biologists, and geneticists, have long determined in their research that an individual’s I.Q. and certain abilities like musical inclination and other artistic abilities are or can be transmitted through genes. Though environmental influences have proven to be perhaps an equal factor than genetic transmittance, the genes we received from our parents plays an important role in our I.Q. So even as it is a fact that we receive both good and bad traits from both parents in these other areas, it is likewise true that I.Q. is not meted out equally to every sibling born from the same parents.
Though I have witnessed families where every child was born with a high I.Q. and were able to excel at an above average performance in their academic performance at school, there were other cases where a sibling born from the same parents did not do as well academically as his or her brother or sister (who nevertheless surpassed them in other crucial areas of life like musical inclination, social interactions, leadership skills, mechanical inclination, and etc.).
So just because you perhaps may not be as academically inclined as one of your siblings are does not mean that you were left out of the genetic bequeathment. Each of us has our own uniqueness and were given certain abilities and inclinations that others do not possess even if they are our siblings.
Behavioral Patterns, Temperaments, and Idiosyncrasies
This final section deals with the area where we will most likely display the best and worse of what we received from both sides. Whether through our genes or environment, we have received both good and bad traits that help to shape our personalities, behavioral patterns, temperament, and characters. I have been able to distinguish and identify which of my parents that I am acting or behaving more like when I am tried or going through a time of adversity or opposition. During these times, I act or respond more like my mother.
Certainly, it is because of what I gleaned from her many years of being a Christian. However, there are times when I must deny and resist the bad traits in my temperament that I received from both of my parents. There is just no way any of us can deny or explain the fact that we have received both good and bad qualities from both of our parents.
These traits have been transmitted into our total tripartite make-up – spirit, soul, and body. The greatest thing that we can do as individuals is to eliminate the negatives and accentuate the positives.
Please do not deny or ignore the truth that you have received the best and worst in you from both sides.
