One of the clients in my Bahá'í-inspired life coaching practice posed this question: How do we encourage our kids to have higher moral standards than society around us, without making them feel isolated from their classmates?
Perhaps the first thing is to be a good role model ourselves. Our children must see that our deeds match our words. If we don’t drink, do drugs, smoke, or have extra-marital sex, our children will accept this is the norm and be uncomfortable around people who do.
Get them into a junior youth program, so they can discuss these issues with their peers and a youth animator, who is slightly older.
It’s helpful to study these compilations with them and get their comments:
Youth Can Move the World
A Chaste and Holy Life
Individual Rights and Freedoms.
There is a powerful protection for our souls in saying the Obligatory prayers and 95 Alláh-u-Abhás each day, so encouraging our children to recite these prayers will ensure they are protected, and that way, the job is in God’s hands.
Moderation is a wonderful virtue! It’s easy to become outraged by the lyrics on the music they listen to, or by the sexually explicit music videos they watch, or the computer games and movies they view. A natural tendency would be to ban them all.
Recently I came across the concept of vertical vs. Horizontal influences. Vertical influences are the ones which raise our souls up to our Creator, and horizontal influences are ones that keep us trapped in the prison of self. If there is a balance between the 2 influences in our children’s lives, they should feel connected both to their peers and to God.
How do you teach your kids to have high moral standards? Post your comments here:
Perhaps the first thing is to be a good role model ourselves. Our children must see that our deeds match our words. If we don’t drink, do drugs, smoke, or have extra-marital sex, our children will accept this is the norm and be uncomfortable around people who do.
Get them into a junior youth program, so they can discuss these issues with their peers and a youth animator, who is slightly older.
It’s helpful to study these compilations with them and get their comments:
Youth Can Move the World
A Chaste and Holy Life
Individual Rights and Freedoms.
There is a powerful protection for our souls in saying the Obligatory prayers and 95 Alláh-u-Abhás each day, so encouraging our children to recite these prayers will ensure they are protected, and that way, the job is in God’s hands.
Moderation is a wonderful virtue! It’s easy to become outraged by the lyrics on the music they listen to, or by the sexually explicit music videos they watch, or the computer games and movies they view. A natural tendency would be to ban them all.
Recently I came across the concept of vertical vs. Horizontal influences. Vertical influences are the ones which raise our souls up to our Creator, and horizontal influences are ones that keep us trapped in the prison of self. If there is a balance between the 2 influences in our children’s lives, they should feel connected both to their peers and to God.
How do you teach your kids to have high moral standards? Post your comments here:
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2 comments:
I have observed a Baha'i friend of mine teach her two children, aged 7 and 5, to have high moral standards even at this young age.
What I notice is that she is already talking to them about the images on so many of children's items, whether it's Disney princesses, or Dora the Explorer, or Hannah Montana. She makes a joke to her children, "Why don't they put your beautiful face on this backpack? Why should I give them my money to have their faces on it?" And she talks about how these images always change. That one month everything has one image and the next month another one. But if there is no image than your clothing are always in style.
I think bringing their attention to materialism from a young age will help them when they are junior youth as it builds the foundation to be unique, to think for yourself, and to set yourself apart from the mainstream pressures that kids are so bombared with.
Of course, she pairs this with helping them to memorize plenty of prayers, and quotes from the Writings. She gives them a firm understanding of what the Baha'i Faith is and what it means to be a Baha'i.
I can see that her children already have the tools to work with so that when they are older and the pressures are greater, they will be able to make choices for the betterment of themselves and the world around them.
Congratulations on a fine Baha'i blog. Hope everyone reads it and follows the guidance.
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