Quite honestly I have a lot of goals in my life like get a doctorate, become a master gardener, learn yoga, have a great marriage, but one of my top 3 goals include, teaching (guiding, inviting, encouraging) my kids to know and love God. So the podcast titled “The Spirituality of Parenting,” (speakingoffaith.publicradio.com) by Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso definitely caught my attention.
Our kids have big questions about God and life and most of the time there is no place to ask or wonder about them. Even churches are filled with classes that want to teach them about God, but not necessarily listen to them ask their questions about Him.
In the religious education field, (in general) we are very focused on making sure our kids know the right things, know the right information. Quite honestly information alone seldom changes a person. There’s that old saying is “you can give a person a fish and they can eat for a day or you can teach them to fish and they will eat for a life time.” The same is true in religious education. We can give kids the 5 steps to “accept Jesus” into your heart and life or we can help and guide kids to discover Jesus for themselves.
Self-discovery and mastery builds a child’s inner-confidence. It affirms that he/she is a component individual and contributes to his/her community. These attributes of confidence and competency empowers a child to continue to seek a relationship with Jesus Christ, God the Father and Creator and the Spirit.
Rabbi Sasso says that by the age of 5 all kids have a concept of God, whether or not they can verbalize it. If we don’t engage their questions, they will stop asking. Sofia Cavalletti, a Roman Catholic theologian, tells the story about a little girl who was raised in a nonreligious home, with her atheist father. Repeatedly the little girl asked about how the world came into being, and the father’s answer consistently reflected his worldview, it’s all by chance and accident. Time and time again this little girl asked the same question (drives you nuts!) and finally the father probably weary, this time replied, “well some people believe that God was involved with the world’s creation.” The little girl began to excitedly jump around, saying, “Yes, I knew it was Him.”
When kids have questions, they are looking to engage in conversation, not necessarily solve the problem. Talking is what is essential. This is very important for parents and those who work with kids. More times than not adults would be more effective, listening to the kids, keeping quiet (not teaching!) and then asking a few good questions with lots of affirmation, “that is a great question. I can tell you have thought a lot about that.”
These times with our kids are sacred moments.
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