Whether you're a believer who practices some form of religion, or a non-believer, or neither, in the sense you couldn't care less about these things, you would be setting your child adrift on a turbulent ocean, if you have not inculcated in him a belief in a higher power—a power that supports, protects, calms, loves.
If you practice a religion and believe in it, you should pass on your beliefs to your children. If you don't follow or practice any form of organized religion, you owe it to yourself and to your kids, to develop your spirituality independent of any religious beliefs. Self-help books and religious texts help in this endeavour.
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| Photograph courtesy Kakisky-morguefile.com |
If you practice a religion and believe in it, you should pass on your beliefs to your children. If you don't follow or practice any form of organized religion, you owe it to yourself and to your kids, to develop your spirituality independent of any religious beliefs. Self-help books and religious texts help in this endeavour.
Since spirituality is often associated with organized religion, those that are disillusioned with the latter easily reject the former. Life's dramatic turns often tip us over the edge into questioning the existence of God and seek comfort in atheism.
But if you are looking for an old man in the sky with a flowing beard armed with a scroll filled with your misdemeanours and a thunderbolt ready to strike random bad guys; you're right, he does not exist.
But if you are looking for an old man in the sky with a flowing beard armed with a scroll filled with your misdemeanours and a thunderbolt ready to strike random bad guys; you're right, he does not exist.
Organized religions are culpable to a certain extent in popularising such views in the public consciousness and labelling it God.
If, on the other hand, we were to wonder as to the power that makes a bud bloom, the informed aesthetics that adds iridescence to a bird's wings and brings forth a rainbow where there was none, the wisdom that forms mountains and oceans and keeps the earth in its orbit for zillion years, the quiet contemplation of that power is prayer and the object of that prayer is God.
If, on the other hand, we were to wonder as to the power that makes a bud bloom, the informed aesthetics that adds iridescence to a bird's wings and brings forth a rainbow where there was none, the wisdom that forms mountains and oceans and keeps the earth in its orbit for zillion years, the quiet contemplation of that power is prayer and the object of that prayer is God.
Spiritual development is possible in the structured environs of religion; it is also possible without it. But deciding it is not relevant or at least not as important as wealth or fame is a massive fallacy.
Spirituality is also a kind of prosperity just as wealth and fame are. The only difference being that it is eternal while the other two are destructible and ephemeral in the larger scheme of things.
Spirituality is also power, a resilience that will prevent you snapping in half when all around you are broken.
Spirituality is also a kind of prosperity just as wealth and fame are. The only difference being that it is eternal while the other two are destructible and ephemeral in the larger scheme of things.
Spirituality is also power, a resilience that will prevent you snapping in half when all around you are broken.
When young, kids have unlimited access to parents and caregivers when faced with problems. This ceases as they grow and if it is not replaced with another source of strength, they may succumb to feelings of helplessness and weakness.
Depending totally on your capabilities, wealth, or intelligence can make life an uphill task; whereas a firm belief in a benevolent higher power makes life that much more bearable and eminently livable.
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| Photograph courtesy Mary R. Vogt-morguefile.com |
