We are spiritual teachers to our children.

We are spiritual teachers to our children.
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Even before conceiving a child

we fly up to the heights of imagination

to plan a lot of things

concerning the not yet conceived child,

  such as

how stylishly we can name it,

what kind of fashionable  dress we can buy for it,

in which school  we should admit it for pre KG education etc.

All our plans will be concerning the worldly life of our child.

Have we ever pre-planned the spiritual life of our children?

Have we ever thought of the virtues we are to train our children in?

We preplan our children's material life,

but leave them to take their  spiritual life as it comes.

We plan to live a place where there are schools for our children,

but do we plan to live in a place where there is a Church,

where there is a priest to direct us in our spiritual life,

and

where there is a school with catechism learning facilities.?

We may live in such a place,

but it won't be according to our plan,

it only happens we live there.

“What would it profit a man

if he were to gain the whole world and lose his soul in the process.

What can a man exchange for his very soul?”

These words of Our Lord should be the driving force of our life.

We spend a lot of time to plan to gain worldly things, 

but we don't spend a single moment to plan to take a special care of our soul.

If our child is weak in studies we arrange for tuition and are ready to spend any amount of money on it, 

but do we care to arrange for regular spiritual direction if he is weak in spirituality?

Do we take the same effort

which we take to get a good salaried job for our son,

to pave their way to heaven,

the ultimate aim of our creation?

If we lose our job, we lose that alone;

but if we lose heaven we lose ourselves for ever.

Our  primary obligation

is to bring every family member

to heaven,

to be with God,

the Blessed Virgin Mary,

the angels

and saints for all eternity!

We should never forget this obligation.

True,  we baptize our children and celebrate the function with a grand feast,

but we forget our baptism related spiritual duties.

"But Jesus said to them: Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come to me, for the kingdom of heaven is for such."(Matthew. 19:24)

Our main duty is

to bring our children to  Jesus

by teaching them them how to pray,

by sending them to regular catechism classes,

by admitting them in Catholic schools for their education

and bringing them up in our Faith.

Jesus likes our children more than we like them,

so,

we must teach our children to love Jesus

more than anything else in this world.

It is our duty as parents to see

that our children's baptismal purity lasts all their life.

A building needs a strong foundation to stand for a long time.

Our children need a strong foundation in Faith to live a good life in Christ all their life.

A child can be compared to a sponge:

the nature of a sponge is to absorb,

especially liquids and usually water.

It can absorb both clean and dirty water.

If it should absorb only clean water,  it should be kept away from dirty water.

Our children also are like a sponge.

They can absorb both good and bad habits.

If they are grown up in a good and pious atmosphere, they will absorb all the good habits they come across.

If they grow up in a bad atmosphere, they will absorb
only  bad habits.

Do you know  one secret?

All of us are keeping a machine in our house,

which can create both good or bad atmosphere in our house,

depending on remote control switch.

Hope you have guessed what it is.

Yes, it is our TV.

Even a three year child, with a remote in its hand, can open the TV door and enter a vulgar world to absorb all the possible  bad habits.

If a lifeless machine can take the child into a vulgar world,

can we not, living people, take it into a good world?

Can we not fill the mind, heart and lips of the child with prayers

to the Guardian Angel,

to Mother Mary, (Hail Mary)

to the Holy Trinity, (In the name of the Father )

to the Heavenly Father. (Our Father)?

We should grow up our  children in a prayerful atmosphere, not in a TV serial atmosphere.

The remote must be remote from the child.

We must teach our children

the short

but all-important phrase:

“Offer it up!”

We should  take advantage of daily sufferings and crosses that God sends to all of us.

We must offer our sufferings and crosses to God.

Through this process of offering our sufferings,

we can help our friends

through our prayers and pains.

Sufferings not offered are sufferings wasted.

We should our teach children,

even when they are small,

to offer up the headache,

toothache,

hot or cold weather,

the fall and bruise

and the cut,

so that

these sufferings may  have infinite value!

Whatever is offered to God has everlasting value.

God does not want money from us.

Jesus satisfied His Father

while amending for our sins

not with money,

but with sufferings!

Our children must know that we are like Jesus when we suffer.

Above all our children must be taught to love God and one another.

Why do children love their parents?

Because they brought them into this world.

The same logic applies to our relationship with  God also.

"Why should we love God?"

"Because He created us from nothing, out of love for us.

Our parents' love for us has a beginning,

God's love for us is eternal."

"Why should we love one another? "

"Because all of us have been created by the same God.

In God we are all brothers and sisters."

Our children must know all these facts.

It is said that family is the first school and parents are the first teachers.

Some go even deeper to say that  mother's womb is the first school.

That is also true.

In Tamil there is a saying :

"மாதா பிதா குரு தெய்வம்."

"அம்மாவும் அப்பாவும்

முதன்முதல்

கடவுளை

அறிமுகப்படுத்தி

அவரை நோக்கி

தம் பிள்ளைகளை

வழி நடத்துதும் ஆசிரியர்கள்."

We are spiritual teachers to our children.

Lourdu Selvam.