A Story of baby Moses

Our parents play the most significant role in our life. According to the theory of the Stages of Psychosocial Development by Erik Erikson, parents are our significant others during the first two stages. During the psychosocial crisis between trust and mistrust and between autonomy and shame, our parents helped us to seek hope and will. Therefore, we should be thankful to them. Today, we would like to share a story about Moses.

You may all know that Moses is the one who had led Israelites out of Egypt, but have you heard about his childhood? If you recall what you have learnt on RE lessons, the Egyptians were alert to the growing influence of Israelites after Joseph gained power. Fearing the Israelites, the Pharaoh commanded the Israelites to ‘throw every newborn boy into the river but let all the girls live.’ A lady, however, kept her newborn son hidden for three months. When she could no longer hide him, she got a papyrus basket and coated it with bitumen and pitch before putting the child inside and laid it among the reeds at the river’s edge. Later, the pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe in the river. While her maids walked along the riverside, she noticed the basket. So she sent her maid to fetch it.

As soon as the pharaoh’s daughter opened the basket, she saw the child was crying. Feeling sorry for him, she decided to nurse the child. She found the baby’s mother and told the mother to nurse him for her temporarily first. When the child grew up, the mother brought him to the Pharaoh’s daughter, who then treated him like her own son. The pharaoh’s daughter named him Moses because she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’ The daughter of the Pharaoh kissed and hugged Moses as if he was her own son. And she would not take him out of the royal palace to keep him safe.

In this story, the Pharaoh’s daughter took care of Moses as if he was her own son. She gave him everything and loved him very much. In our everyday lives, our parents also loved us from the bottom of their hearts, even more than the Pharaoh’s daughter, as we are really their children. In return, we should love our parents and develop a positive attitude towards them. Always make them our priority and think from their point of view. As Confucius has once said, even if we disagree with them, we should never be rude to them. We should also work hard in order to provide our parents with a decent living in the future, after their tremendous effort in raising and taking great care of us.

Therefore, Shungtakians, let’s never forget our responsibilities as a son or daughter and repay our parents for taking care of us.

5L
28 October 2021