G is for GENETICS

I'm not sure what characteristics I inherited from mum and dad, but I don't remember the hair on my mother's head thinning to the point where there was no shade from the sun and I certainly didn't inherit dad's crooked leg. Both of them came from musical families who also were keen in sport so I guess my love of and interest in both stemmed fro that beginning, though I'm not sure what I inherited and what I just grew up with. I was taller than mum, but then most people were, but dad had a much more slender figure, though his brothers would have been more my build. My hair had gone grey-white a few years ago and, in retrospect, I realise that this is a trait present in mum's family. My sister had ginger hair but neither side of the family in the last two generations bore that colour. But I guess, though facially we often exhibit traits of our parents, which prompts the odd individual to say 'he's like his mother,' or 'I can her father in her face,' it's often in other areas that the resemblance is most noticeable. Sometimes it's simply in our laugh or the tone of our voice or maybe a sideways glance. But often it's in our personality and the way we deal with others and cope with life, though I tend to think that much of this is not genetical but based on our experience and possibly reflects how we saw our parents solve issues. Sometimes we learn to copy their solution. Other times we decide that a different route would work better.

In my teaching career, especially at primary school, where you get the opportunity to know the parents, it is amazing how easy is becomes to spot resemblances among siblings and between them and their parents. Even when a new pupil joins school at primary one, it is always possible to see facial similarities that suggest which family name they bear. I love the day when the photographer comes to school and shoots family pictures. It's probably the one time when there is the opportunity to see all the children from the same household in the one place and they fit together just like a jigsaw. They even frown, smile and laugh the same and are often strong or weak at the same subjects. I guess there's some genetics at work there. But I think there are other forces at work too, in making us the individuals we are. I've often heard it said that if you want to know what people are really like, look at their children and I can't say I disagree, for our offspring often only reflect what they see at home, as they struggle to become individuals in their own right. It's probably a lesson to us all in how we should be no different in the home than we are outside its walls for nobody is more discerning than a child and no one is a better imitator. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and I hope the many good qualities I see in our two lads are to some degree a reflection not only of their mum and dad but the home that they have known. I'm sure they have other less desirable traits but like any parent, I probably look at them through rose-tinted spectacles!

For years at school and at university, I studied genetics and then taught it for a time so I know that some of the characteristics we inherit form our ancestors are not desirable while others bring unfortunate consequences in the form of disabilities or illnesses that are rarely curable and only controllable for a time. But I also know that our genes are not alone responsible for the way we grow up and much of our shaping comes from the environment in which we exist. So while our hair colour or eye colour, colour blindness or haemophilia may be predetermined, much of our personality may be moulded by our home, our friends or lack of them, the partner we choose for life, our job, our finances, the country where we live or even the schools we attended and we reflect a little piece of each at different times in our lives.

Though God became my spiritual father many years ago, I know I have not always reflected Him in the way I have lived but often have have borne the traits that are more associated with the world around me. As my faith has deepened and I have learned more about Him over the years, so my desire to be more like Him increases to the point where I want to reflect Him in my life for others to see. The strange thing is that the more we get to know Him the more our faces and our actions reflect Him without us being conscious of trying. And the less we reflect what we see in the world. I suppose it's all about giving up self for Himself, giving up happiness for true joy and never giving up, even in the face of temptation. The writer of Proverbs reminds us 'As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man.' So if you're 'born again' isn't it time it showed up in your genes!