My younger daughter is leaving home to study in Taipei. I can't help but be deeply concerned about her and unwilling to part with her. However, my major sense of loss is that from now on I can't prepare box lunches for her each day.

Because my house and my office are in different cities, the commute takes two hours round-trip by bus. To avoid having my children wait for me with empty stomachs every evening, I get up at five each morning, whether in cold, windy winter or hot, suffocating summer, to prepare breakfast and supper for my family and box lunches for my children. I do all this with joy.

Love Begins With a Box Lunch

One winter morning, when the sky was still dark, my younger daughter got up. "Mom, it's so cold," she said to me. "Do you think it's too much trouble for you to get up so early to make lunch for me?" I replied, "I'm grateful to you for giving me the precious chance to make it for you. Because when you graduate and go somewhere else for advanced study or a job, I won't have the chance to make lunch for you anymore."

Then my daughter told me a secret--she shared her box lunch each day with one of her classmates who did not have a mother and was envious of her lunch. "She says that the food is delicious." My daughter's classmate lived with her father, and he was not at home most of the time. I knew that she had a tendency toward low self-esteem and underachievement due to a lack of family love and care, so I asked my daughter to keep encouraging her. I also doubled the quantity of food in the lunch box each day to convey my loving care to her.

This year, that girl graduated without any problem and was admitted to a good college. My daughter said, "Mom, I finally believe that love can create strength and miracles."

Love Makes Them Outstanding

I once read a story. Twenty-five years ago, a sociology professor asked his students to do a survey in the Baltimore slums. They surveyed the background and environment of 200 boys there and evaluated their future development. They concluded that these boys had little chance for any success. Twenty-five years later, this survey report was found by another professor. He asked his students to do a follow-up survey to find out the current status of those 200 boys surveyed before. The second survey found that, except for 20 boys who had moved or passed away, the remaining 176 were quite outstanding people--they were all doctors, lawyers and businessmen.