What is Spiritual Parenting?

Life is a sacred and spiritual journey, we are sacred and spiritual beings and we can choose to embrace the perspective of parenting from the sacred place of our spirituality - the heart.

Spiritual parenting is about parenting with a compassionate and giving heart.

As parents, family, teachers and caregivers in the community we can create a nurturing environment at home and in the community; we can offer guidance, encouragement and support but not judgment; we can show a genuine respect for children and the value they have here with us in our compassionate communication with them, in the gentleness with which we treat them, in the time we allow for them and the opportunities we provide for them to discover and develop the authenticity of their being.

Hugh Prather, in Spiritual Parenting, A Guide to Understanding and Nurturing the Heart of Your Child, writes,

"To sing with the voice of angels as we do the work of angels. To laugh with the laugh of Buddha as we go to our awakening. To extend the arms of Jesus to welcome the presence of children and let them climb into our hearts...... To them we pledge:

I will never make promises to you lightly. I will remember the promises I make. And I will keep them.

I will not hurt you or shame you - and I will never, never mislead you.

I will respect your needs and give full attention to your desires. I will discount nothing you want merely because you are a child and I am an adult......

Above all, I will not forget your innocence. I will remember where it comes from. I will recall it over and over as if my innocence depended on remembering yours.

And in these ways I will love you, and cherish you, and enjoy you deeply that it will be as if God gave you to me and said, "Please take care of my beloved child."

Children are born into this world with the perfection of the vast, ete
al and endless love of the universe. Innocent. Intuitive. Spiritual. What children do not have is a working awareness of this world in the early years of life here. Children depend on the caregivers in their life to protect, guide and teach with understanding and compassion, to reflect the truth and dignity of who they are and their place in this world back to them, to reflect the truth of this world and the truth of others, to reflect the significance, meaning and purpose of life. The parenting perspective parents choose to parent from is significant as it is the perspective children will learn to evaluate reality from and it is the foundation from which children will build their personal beliefs and expectations of life and connection to life. Spiritual parenting acknowledges and integrates the spirituality of being within the working awareness of this world.

In the introduction of 10 Principles for Spiritual Parenting, Nurturing Your Child's Soul, Mimi Doe writes, "Children are spiritual beings. They naturally have what many of us spend years trying to reclaim. What if instead of working on one's "inner child" as an adult, we remain in the light of our intrinsic spirituality and retain our childlike wonder and faith? There is a way to do that. If we recognize and honor our children's innate spiritual connection they may never have to lose it." nnn