| When we raise children, life becomes hectic. Between | | | | church or temple, others develop a moral sense |
| work, after school activities, homework, team sports | | | | completely separate from organized religion. |
| and social events, there is very little time left to think | | | | Children start thinking about spirituality at about the |
| about spirituality, unless you are a parent already | | | | time they learn language. By the age of 4 or 5 most |
| involved in church, temple, religious and/or spiritual | | | | children are intensely interested in right and wrong, |
| practices. Even having a strong religious and spiritual | | | | good and evil. The researcher, Maria Bindl noticed that |
| belief system, it is difficult to teach this to our | | | | up to the age of about six or seven, children have a |
| children. The questions I hear most often are "How | | | | "naive relatedness" to God after which there is a |
| do I share my spirituality with my children? How do I | | | | noticeable decline in "spontaneous experience of the |
| teach my child to meditate? My child does not like | | | | numinous". |
| going to church or temple, should I force them? My | | | | In thinking about spirituality, many parents give their |
| child has no interest in guided meditations and prayer. | | | | children a religious education because it's part of the |
| Is he not spiritual?" | | | | family's spiritual values and cultural identity. It's a way |
| In the past it was assumed that children's religious | | | | to connect with a heritage going back thousands of |
| education must match their capacity to think and | | | | years. Spirituality encompasses religious beliefs, ethical |
| reason. So religious education focused on learning | | | | behavior, social responsibility and faith to name a few. |
| prayers and bible stories, and left the exploration of | | | | Some ancient religious philosophers believe that if a |
| the capacity to have deep spiritual concerns to | | | | child is utterly convinced that his or her existence has |
| adulthood. Today we know that even very young | | | | meaning and his/her deeds have consequences and |
| children ask the kind of questions that can only be | | | | we can teach them that our every thought and deed |
| called spiritual. "Who created the earth? Why am I | | | | is of real, even global, significance, then I belief we |
| here? How do I know what's right and wrong?" | | | | have succeeded in blending all aspects of spirituality. |
| Some children find answers to these questions in | | | | |