lunamoth
Episcopalian
What do you all think? Is it important to teach children about religion and spirituality? Were you happy with the religious teachings (or lack thereof) you were taught as a child? Will you do things differently for your children than what you learned? What is the best way to get across your beliefs in a simple way? I'm interested in views from everyone, if you follow a religon or tradition or if you are walking your own very individual path.
My first child has been asking more and more about God as she moves into the age of reason (she's 4 and a half). For example, our pet cat had to be put to sleep last year because "he was very very old and very very sick." And so he went to cat heaven and is with God. And she, being astute as most 4-year-olds are, immediately made the leap to "but Grandma is old. Will she die?" And so I find myself teaching her the very simple things I learned as a child, even though I now have a more sophisticated (well, at least more detailed!) theology and I know that some of the things I tell her as literal are for me metaphorical. She attends sunday school at the church I now attend, which is quite liberal and fits my views well, so I am comfortable with what she learns there even. But more important I feel are the messages I pass along to her at home, both the answers to her direct questions and the example I set, the things I say, the ways I react to life.
And this past week our fish died (aside: actually it was due to a mistake on my part and I feel rather terrible about it). Due to bad weather we wrappped him up and put him in the freezer to await burial in the rose garden when the ground thaws. So now the question is "where is Fish?" and I say "he is also in heaven" and the next question is "is Fish in the freezer?" (by the way, his official name was Fish) and my answer was "well, just his body is in the freeezer, the important part of Fish is with God." so she says "is his head in the freezer?" (as opposed to his body, the unimportant part, see how quickly I am digging myself into a hole here...) and I say, "his head is still with his body in the freezer but his spirit is with God, and he is also in our hearts." This ended the conversation, for now, but I am sure that it will come up again soon. Can't wait for the ground to thaw.
But in retrospect, it seems like any formal religious ed I got as a child was quite boring and unfulfilling. And as soon as I got to be a teenager with normal skeptical teenage know-it-all attitude, formal religious teaching seemed to push me away from sprituality rather than toward it. And thre was so much contradiction with the rational in world in which I was trying to figure out in order to survive. No one explained to me that religion was supposed to be extraordinary. Totally lost upon me was the mystery and joy and awe of God and my place in His creation. These were left for me to discover only after young adulthood was gone and midlife loomed large. And, needless to say, after many mistakes had been made.
So, my children will likely go through the same process. Maybe we all have to discover it on our own and can't really be taught the important part of the spiritual life. But I'm pretty sure that something was instilled in me during my childhood and youth that helped draw me back to spirituality and for that I am thankful. I remember the clear belief I had as a young child, I'm not sure you can call that faith because it is so inherent and not an act of will, and I long to have that again. And I hope for my children to have that as well.
What about you?
My first child has been asking more and more about God as she moves into the age of reason (she's 4 and a half). For example, our pet cat had to be put to sleep last year because "he was very very old and very very sick." And so he went to cat heaven and is with God. And she, being astute as most 4-year-olds are, immediately made the leap to "but Grandma is old. Will she die?" And so I find myself teaching her the very simple things I learned as a child, even though I now have a more sophisticated (well, at least more detailed!) theology and I know that some of the things I tell her as literal are for me metaphorical. She attends sunday school at the church I now attend, which is quite liberal and fits my views well, so I am comfortable with what she learns there even. But more important I feel are the messages I pass along to her at home, both the answers to her direct questions and the example I set, the things I say, the ways I react to life.
And this past week our fish died (aside: actually it was due to a mistake on my part and I feel rather terrible about it). Due to bad weather we wrappped him up and put him in the freezer to await burial in the rose garden when the ground thaws. So now the question is "where is Fish?" and I say "he is also in heaven" and the next question is "is Fish in the freezer?" (by the way, his official name was Fish) and my answer was "well, just his body is in the freeezer, the important part of Fish is with God." so she says "is his head in the freezer?" (as opposed to his body, the unimportant part, see how quickly I am digging myself into a hole here...) and I say, "his head is still with his body in the freezer but his spirit is with God, and he is also in our hearts." This ended the conversation, for now, but I am sure that it will come up again soon. Can't wait for the ground to thaw.
But in retrospect, it seems like any formal religious ed I got as a child was quite boring and unfulfilling. And as soon as I got to be a teenager with normal skeptical teenage know-it-all attitude, formal religious teaching seemed to push me away from sprituality rather than toward it. And thre was so much contradiction with the rational in world in which I was trying to figure out in order to survive. No one explained to me that religion was supposed to be extraordinary. Totally lost upon me was the mystery and joy and awe of God and my place in His creation. These were left for me to discover only after young adulthood was gone and midlife loomed large. And, needless to say, after many mistakes had been made.
So, my children will likely go through the same process. Maybe we all have to discover it on our own and can't really be taught the important part of the spiritual life. But I'm pretty sure that something was instilled in me during my childhood and youth that helped draw me back to spirituality and for that I am thankful. I remember the clear belief I had as a young child, I'm not sure you can call that faith because it is so inherent and not an act of will, and I long to have that again. And I hope for my children to have that as well.
What about you?
