As Robert Brault’s quote goes, “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things”.I cannot help but reminisce the time when my growing children were still in their toddler ages.

Yes, they were terrible in many ways, turn your house upside downand really tested your patience to the max, yet those were moments that give you much joy. recalling those little things and how you were able yo manage to keep yourself sane paints a smile on your face. Now that you see them grown to have minds of their own, you suddenly wish to embrace those moments again. Oh how you awfully miss the times of you life when they are all over you and their world revolved around you. Times flies so fast that you don’t even realize that they have grown so fast ans soon have a life of their own.

Sometimes, I ask myself if i did not work and had been a full time mother, will my children be better that who are they are now? Then I start to imagine being there all the times for their homework and assignments or be there for all their needs. Could that guarantee a better personal development and better life for them? maybe yes maybe no. There are full time parents who may have all the time with their children but they are not able to check, see and know their children’s real needs, most especially their emotional and spiritual needs.

I have learned that what is most important in the development of children is giving them the most essential things in life i.e. faith and belief in the Supreme Being. Making them aware of the reality of God in their lives and impressing in their minds and hearts that a heavenly father loves each one of us immensely, who created us for a purpose, are powerful tools to combat the many things lure, excite and stress our young people.

My husband and I believed that nurturing spirituality and giving God is our greatest legacy to our children. We understand that there is a need to repackage how we teach our children about God which requires much of our life examples and with a taste of modernity. How our parents 30 to 40 years back gave God to their children mau no longer be effective today.

We have to nurture spirituality in our children in a fashion that it becomes a way of life not just something abstract and dogmatic which cannot children to act from integrity and strength which starts with honesty and humility to say “Sorry” to the nearest person whom they have done wrong. Always ready to start again. We share to them the art of loving i.e. “be the first one yo love”, “to love always”, to love your enemies by forgiving” while making them understand  that God is in every person and there is goodness in each one. We let them understand the true meaning of discipline by making them aware on how their actions affect others.

We let them appreciate higher reality find meaning in life and fulfillment in doing good for others by giving them the opportunity to experience working with other children in outreach programs for the less fortunate people in depressed areas, calamities, orphanage and homes for the aged and for the mentally and physically challenged. Do evening prayer together and whenever possible share experience of the day.

But what is spirituality? Have you heard of Spiritual Intelligence or Spiritual Quotient (SQ)? Spirituality refers to what is most essential to the heart of human intelligences, refers to various skills and abilities that empower one to live in harmony with his/her highest values and move unwaveringly towards his/her life goals

• with a Heart that is open and flexible
• with Enthusiasm,
• with Awareness of one’s present experience and of the presence of the Divine,
• with Respect for and service to others and the world, and
• guided by the Traditions of one’s highest values and ethics.

There are eight signs of high SQ, namely: (1) Flexibility (2) Self-awareness (3) An ability to face and use suffering (4) The ability to be inspired by a vision (5) An ability to see connections between diverse things (thinking holistically) (6) A desire and capacity to cause a little harm as possible (7) A tendency to probe and ask fundamental questions and (8) An ability to work against convention.

Researches now have surprising evidence that people with high SQ who believe in God as a heavenly parent who loves and cares for them have one of the most effective resources available for managing stress in a crisis, for resisting temptations and achieving long term health.

In a study on adolescent risk behaviours, it has been reported that children with some connection with religious and spiritual concepts, and those with higher levels of spiritual well-being in particular, existential well-being, had fewer depressive symptoms and fewer risk-taking behaviours.

Spiritual has an almost unequaled power to relive depression and stress by providing an inner sense of calm and tranquility. When overwhelmed with multiple anxieties, one who believes in their Heavenly Father tries letting go into the hands of One who cares about him/her and is more than qualified to handle them.

The dramatic increases in anxiety and depression in children, as well as in adolescents, which resulted in suicides and various form of addiction and criminality over the last five or more decades, have alarmed many parents especially those working away from home.

With the challenges we face today as parents, maybe nurturing spirituality in our children is a way we can best raise and help them develop their strengths and lead uniquely purposeful and fulfilling lives. What do you think?