|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 30
The bearing of this truth upon our teaching is that we must seek for the
unfolding of the child's spiritual nature and for the turning of his
thought and affections toward God from the first. We must not point to
some distant day ahead when the child will "accept Jesus" or become "a
child of God." We must ourselves think of the child, and lead the child
to think of himself, as a member of God's family.
This does not mean that the child, as he grows from childhood into youth
and adulthood, will not need to make a personal and definite decision to
give God and the Christ first place in his life; he will need to do this
not once, but many times. It only means that from his earliest years the
child is to be made to feel that he belongs to God, and should turn to
him as Father and Friend. Day by day and week by week the child should
be growing more vitally conscious of God's place in his life, and more
responsive to this relationship. Only by this steady and continuous
process of growth will the spiritual nature take on the depth and
quality which the Christian ideal sets for its attainment.
Ideals and ambitions.--In order that religion may be a helpful reality
to the child it must extend to his developing ideals and ambitions. For
even children have ideals and ambitions, however crude they may be, or
however much they may lack the serious and practical nature they later
take on. Probably no child reaches his teens without having many times
secretly determined that he would do this or become that, which he has
admired in some hero of his own choosing from actual acquaintance or
from books or stories. There is no normal child but who has his own
notions of greatness and importance, of success and fame, and who wishes
and longs for certain things ahead upon which he has set his heart, and
which he purposes to attain. The things that he thus values are his
ideals, goals to be reached. Ideals are, therefore, guides to action
and effort, something to be striven after and sacrificed for. They are
the things most worth while, for which we can afford to forego other
things of lesser value. It was the force of a great ideal which led Paul
to say, "This one thing I do"; and to the attainment of that ideal he
gave all his purpose and effort.
To form true ideals requires a trained sense of values; one must develop
a power of spiritual perspective, and be able to see things in their
true proportions. He must know what things rightly come first if he is
to "put first things first;" He must have some training in recognizing
the value of "pearls" if he is to see that it is a good exchange to
"sell all that he has" in order to "buy the pearl of great price."
This all suggests that one of the responsibilities resting upon us as
teachers of religion is to guide the child in the forming of his ideals.
We must help him form his notion of what is worthy and admirable in
character. We must see that he develops high standards of truth,
honesty, obedience, and the other moral virtues which lie at the
foundation of all vital religion. We must make certain that his ideals
of success and achievement include a large measure of service to his
fellows. We must ground him in right personal ideals and standards of
purity and clean living. We must make him feel a deep sense of
responsibility for the full development and fruitful use of his own
powers and abilities. In short, we must with all the wisdom and devotion
we possess _bring him to accept the life of Jesus as the ideal and
pattern for his own life_.
Fine appreciations.--What one admires is an index to his character.
More than this, the quality and tone of one's admirations finally build
themselves into his nature and become a part of his very being. Life is
infinitely enriched and refined by responding to the beauty, the
goodness, and the gladness to be found around us. In Hawthorne's story
of The Great Stone Face, the boy Ernest dwelt upon and admired the
character revealed in the benignant lines of the great face outlined by
the hand of the Creator on the mountainside until the fine qualities
which the young boy daily idealized had grown into his own life, and
Ernest himself had become the "wise man" whose coming had long been
awaited by his people.
It is not enough therefore to learn the _facts_ about the lives of the
great men and women of the Bible or of other times. The story of their
lives must be presented in such a way that _admiration_ is compelled
from the learner: for only the qualities the child appreciates and
admires are finally built into his own ideal. It is not enough that the
child shall be taught that God created the world and all that is
therein; he must also be brought to appreciate and admire the wonders
and beauties of nature as an evidence of God's wisdom, power, and
goodness. It is not enough that our pupils shall come to know the chief
events in the life of Jesus and the outline of his teachings; they must
also find themselves lost in admiration of the matchless qualities of
his great personality.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|