Here we learn from William LePar’s spiritual source, The Council, how we can bring the greatest opportunity for spiritual growth to our children.

Questioner: I want to know how it would be best to teach children to respect themselves. It is a materialistic world, and they are very self-centered.

The Council:  Teaching a child to respect themselves has to begin at the moment of birth. In actuality, it can or should be begun prior to birth. While the mother is in pregnancy or carrying the child, she and the father should talk to the child. The child is quite capable of hearing and, to many who may be surprised, quite capable of understanding, understanding not necessarily from the intellectual level but from the spiritual level. By talking to the unborn child in terms of its worth and its value, as a being, can help immensely. After the child is born, then it becomes the responsibility of the parents to constantly attempt to instill the self-respect that is necessary for a productive and happy life. The quest for spirituality begins the moment the individual is conceived. From that point on, that soul, that entity, that spirit, is on a journey of discovering self, discovering the god within. As the child enters the school years, it should have some understanding of its own self-worth, its value. This can be helped immensely by teaching the child discipline, discipline of self, understanding that one, at times, must be in control in any given situation. If the child is not taught self-control, eventually the child will give over that control of self to someone else. In that situation then that individual will become the pawn of a bigger player.

Your world is what it is today because far too many have refused to take control of their own lives. They have been sent on a maddening quest for materialistic identification, for materialistic wealth or self-value at the cost of the control of their own life, their own destiny. When you are born, you are born with a fate, the situation, the conditions you are born in. From that point on, as you reach maturity, as you learn to take control of your own life, as you learn to discipline yourself, you then begin to create your destiny, what you make from the original situation you were born into. It is only through self-discipline that one gains control over his own destiny. If not, the individual is condemned to follow the leader wherever the leader may take him.

A child in school should be taught to think and make decisions and assume the responsibility of those decisions. If the parents have not taught the children where the values in life are, a teacher can hardly be expected to do that. Although a teacher may have some influence by pointing out what is really valuable in life and that is the relationships that we have with each other, the caring we have for each other, the love we have for each other, the ability to take responsibilities in stride, the ability to make commitments and keep them until the commitments are fulfilled.