Spiritual development in a child, and what parents must know.

What are the solutions to evils of xenophobia?

There are 10 solutions. We start one by one in the order of importance.

1. RE-EDUCATING THE PARENTS (PROPER PARENTING)

Proper parenting is the most responsible act and involves complex issues. Therefore, we have to discuss proper parenting first and what it means.

Proper parenting is the process of raising and educating a child from birth, or before, until adulthood. Raising a child properly means giving the proper education to the child. As mentioned before, the earlier it starts the better it is for the child (the future adult). The first and foremost educators in child's life are the parents. Therefore, it is of immense importance that parents have the proper education themselves first.

The goals of human parenting are usually to provide for children's emotional, intellectual and spiritual needs, protect them from harm, and impart in them skills and cultural values until they reach legal adulthood, usually after adolescence.

Therefore, one of the most important responsibility of parenting is to secure child's development emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.

Emotional development refers to the conditions in which a child's mind can develop securely and peacefully. If the child's dignity is safe, i.e. nobody encroaches upon a child physically or verbally, he/she is able to develop with emotional security.

We discussed ten golden rules in child's proper emotional development, ten golden rules in child's proper intellectual and ten golden rules in child's spiritual development; that parents have to bear in mind all the time.

Now we continue with What parents must know about spiritual development in a child.


WHAT PARENTS MUST KNOW


Our main fear in life is based upon the wrong education we learned during our formative years of life. As mentioned earlier, these were always our teachers who told us to fear something imaginary, for example, God or Devil or some ghost. These mythological characters only exist in our mind because we were taught wrongly in our childhood that they do exist in the outside world. In reality they do exist in the outside world but only in the deluded belief systems. We must let go of all the fears from these creatures. They are nuisance and source of constant worry. As mentioned before "True God" lives in our heart, not outside. And you never have to fear "True God".

If you begin to understand spirituality as explained above, in the form of a personal model, you are bound to develop a powerful force within yourself which will guide you to love and be compassionate to your fellow being.


You will find "The Eternal Peace" in your heart after you achieve this gift of spirituality (i.e. Love, compassion, hope, optimism, contentment and happiness). This Eternal Peace will compel you to share your gift with your children, your loved ones, friends and everyone in the in the world."

One frequently asked question by the parents is,

"Should children be expected to learn about the birth religion of the parents?"

The answer is yes. Not only they should learn about the birth religion of the parents but also the learning should be encouraged regarding all the traditional religions. In this way, the child gets a unique opportunity to know about all the religions in general. Once the child has acquired the knowledge of all the important religions, it should be the decision of the child when he/she reaches the age of maturity (18 and over) to decide what belief he/she needs to follow. Even if one does not chose to follow any religion, there should be no objection to one's decision to be a non believer in any traditional religions. As mentioned before, spirituality does not mean that it only belongs to a religious doctrine. Even many atheist are (and have been) highly spiritual people.

One must understand that there is an element of "Child Abuse" in religious teachings. Therefore, one must know how to avoid it.

The essential part of freedom is that religion must never be indoctrinated in the child's mind by force. That is the worst form of child abuse. Unfortunately there is no law against this most damaging and devastating form of child abuse. According to # 9 Golden Rule of Spiritual Health, freedom of choice is also the right of the child. If the child is forced to follow the religion of birth (of the parents), the child will be spiritually doomed to be trapped in the outside supernatural forces and will never acquire the most powerful force of his/her own inner self.

However, the most important evil to avoid (when teaching about the birth religion) is the evil of religionism. Religionism means;

A. Children must never be told that their birth religion is better than any other traditional religion.

B. Neither should they be told verbally or otherwise that other religions are lesser in spirituality than their birth religion.

C. And under no circumstances other religions be degraded and humiliated in the growing mind of the child. This evil of religionism creates bigots and xenophobes.

All A, B and C mentioned above are the evils of religionism. They create bigots and xenophobes. If children are allowed to be bigots and xenophobes, they will never become spiritual in the true sense of the word.


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Next we shall continue with the second solution to xenophobia i.e. Re-educating the Public Schools.


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Sydshahid