I have written several articles on the topic of spiritual child development™ for 2 reasons – based on world events, it is becoming increasingly important, and second, no one else seems to be giving it due attention. A logical starting point for this discussion is to take the abstract to the tangible by defining the term, spiritual child development. For the purpose of this document, I will offer the following definition; the development and maturation of a child's awareness of a higher power and of creation.

In the process of creating this awareness, there are 3 components that come into play;

1. The child’s generic awareness of a higher power and of creation.

2. The development of the child’s own personal spiritual faith and / or identity.

3. The development of the child’s awareness of spiritual belief systems other than their own.

The child’s generic awareness is probably the easiest and most entertaining to invoke. Parents and mentors have many creative liberties to convey this message. The one that has worked well for me is to point out the miracle of themselves, that while their mother and I had a little something to do with their existence, that they truly are a miracle that could not have happened without a divine something or other – I’ll leave it to you the reader to define that part.

Once the child has internalized the premise of a divine being, the next logical step is to introduce the path that you, the parent or mentor has taken to recognize this divine being and the ensuing interactions. In almost all cases, this path naturally translates to the path chosen for the child. Here is where my course for spiritual child development may veer from the traditional path in that I will introduce the premise of other belief systems early in this process. Granted, their orientation to their own belief system is daunting enough and you do not want to confuse the child, but a simple discussion on the fact that other belief systems do exist, and even giving names to them will actually solidify their own spiritual identity. I am not advocating a discussion on any of the intricacies of any of these other faiths but rather, the simple fact that they do exist.

If I have been successful to this point, I will have a young child that has a pretty good idea of his or her own belief system, and recognizes that other belief systems do in fact exist. This brings us to the 3rd aspect of spiritual child development™, which is a discussion on spiritual diversity. You may not be surprised at how fast many adults do not want to touch in this subject for fear of confusing their child or worse, compromising the child’s commitment to their own faith. As mentioned earlier in this document, it is my contention that this discussion solidifies the spiritual identity by bringing out the differences in the respective faiths. When we (myself and the child) have this discussion, I keep it very high level on the basic tenets of respect, compassion and understanding, putting these generic terms in the context of children / people of different faiths. What is the outcome of all this? By having these discussions with the impressionable mind of the young child, you are essentially building the barriers that will hopefully hold up when the inevitable negative influences of the child of the ‘bigot’ or the bigot himself comes to bear.

February 18, 2011