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Passion for science sets his soul on fire
When your child is a budding scientist, you scrub home experiments off your walls and ceiling. Your hard-earned money goes toward chemistry sets. In addition to milk and eggs, your grocery cart contains oddball ingredients destined to bubble and overflow onto your...
See how easily you can spark a child’s spirit?
Last month a 10-year-old girl passed this note of gratitude to a childcare worker in her after-school program. The worker explains: I was sitting around a table with four children, preparing to act out a little play, when Destiny asked me a question about God. They...
Why children make the wrong choices
At some point, every child understands a moral directive and does the opposite. This is a defining moment in the child's life. This is when they (subconsciously) ask us, So what? Why should I do the right thing? What difference does it make? We are keenly aware that...
Spiritual direction beyond a code of ethics
Children look to us for direction. We adults generally respect each other by our mutual belief that we do the best we can to provide direction for our young. We understand the weight of the challenge. Yet the children’s voices persist in their pleas for spiritual...
Spiritual trust: Understand that you really can make a difference
If we work on the assumption that spirituality already exists inside every child, the impact we have on children even in the earliest stages of their development makes such a difference. Many years ago I was told the story of a baby. This baby was born to a mother...
A boy’s fear of heaven
Notice the brilliance one parent displays when she assumes that spirituality already exists in her young son. "As my son was going to sleep two nights ago he said he was afraid to go to heaven because he didn’t know what it would look like. I told him to ask God to...
Spiritual trust: deposits or withdrawals?
It is well-documented that children learn to trust as physical and emotional needs are met consistently.There appears to be a striking difference in how trust develops in the human spirit. It is as if there is a full allotment of spiritual trust as children start out,...
Prom: seeing the divine in everyone
"I felt so beautiful that night. I loved the red carpet so much I went down three times. Everyone wanted my autograph and to take pictures with me." "It was the best!" This from Julia, one of 425 honored guests from 70 schools at a special-needs prom in a California...
“The Fault in Our Stars”: teens and questions
I saw the movie "The Fault in Our Stars" this week after a friend recommended it. When I arrived at the 1:00 matinee, it was a lot of teenagers and me (ancient, by comparison). One group of five girls came in and sat down in front of me-- prepared with a box of...
How we teach the children in our lives
A child’s need of direction for their human spirit includes acquiring basic ethics to guide the way they live. Part of the role of a caregiver is that of a teacher. We teach morals in the very same way we teach life skills. If you are teaching a child to clean up the...
A child’s need for direction
In reality, no child ever gets away with wrong-doing. Children damage themselves when they act destructively (stealing, lying, violence, etc). Knowing this, most parents place high priority on giving direction for living a life of integrity. In the next several blog...
Feed a child’s spirit with Nature
From our earliest years and throughout our lives, hunger of body and hunger of spirit are mingled together. We know a lot about satisfying physical hunger in children with food, but less about satisfying their spiritual hunger. In the first year of life food goes...
Scientific research about child centered spirituality increases
I appreciate the man in Zeitlarn, Germany who wrote me earlier this month to tell me about a book summarizing the findings of an increasing number of studies in child psychology that support child-centered spirituality. One description in the book states: "Scientific...
Trust: Getting there is half the fun
“Trust begins from day one. It develops when a baby’s physical needs are met, so if you are there to feed her, change her and respond to her [cuddle and hold], you’ll begin laying the foundation for a close relationship in later years.” -- Catherine Hutter, PhD,...
Who…me? Taking notice of children
Every child wants to be noticed: “Look at me!” “Watch me!” “See how I can do this!” Having an adult take notice and interact provides formative feedback for children. What do adults notice? What do they not notice? How do they respond? This is all data that children...
Spiritual attachment in children
God is not a concept or an idea or a belief system to children. Children are literal and concrete. They can only understand God as a person with whom they have a relationship. One thing I find interesting about this approach children take to God is how they can attach...
Teach children the words they really need to know
I have been interviewing adults about their childhood spiritual experiences for four years now, and here's one important observation I've made: As children, they didn't have the vocabulary to express how they were processing spirituality and God. As adults, they look...
Not sure how to answer? Here’s an idea.
Last week's post highlights how important it is to a child to have adult engagement with their most difficult questions. Older children seem to be aware of unexplainable events in their life. To an interested listener, they speak freely, with the attitude that it's...