The Secret of Teaching a Child Responsibility

A FAMILY of YOUNG SOULS, more than a soul with a body

Finding your Passion … Hearing your Calling … Knowing your Mission

The Secret of Teaching a Child
Responsibility

The English poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850) called duty the “stern daughter of the voice of God”. And who of us has not at some time believed that duty is a hard taskmaster? Perhaps that sense of duty came at a young age, beckoning us to make our own way apart from the pack, the crowd, the group. And we, being innocently committed to an ideal whose import we were ill-equipped to communicate, found ourselves the object of peer’s scorn. The blacksheep. The teacher’s pet. The rebel. As we were steadfast and faithful in our response to duty, childish taunts hardened into slurs from those who refuse to understand, who are jealous, who would destroy someone else’s dreams. Such people are found in every culture. And because of this, too many who hear God’s voice at a young age grow deaf, abandoning the enlightenment responding to duty brings. Thus they do not teach their own children to listen.

Every person yearns. They constantly crave. Thus they seek what will ease the longing; that which will satisfy. Each person has equal opportunity for happiness or sorrow, prosperity or poverty, fulfillment or emptiness. Most have yet to realize what they yearn for is ethereal. Their time on earth is spent pursuing pleasures of the flesh — pleasures that are transient, and that too often bring pain. The fame passes, the children leave home, the house deteriorates, the spouse dies. Eventually they come to realize what they want is the understanding that comes from aiding others, from passing on what they know, from creating a home, from loving. These understandings are ethereal, they bring us closer to our Maker. The work we do to achieve these understandings is our duty. The master teacher Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and mammon.” We must choose our opportunities with wisdom.

In teaching metaphysics to others here in the West, I often find that people are attracted to this study not because of its spiritual intent but because they want to use the knowledge for physical gain . They have physical desires that they want fulfilled. They want a job, a car, a romantic partner. And they learn how to acquire these desires. They are content, for a while. Not long ago how to aid this type of student was the topic of discussion during a teacer’s conference. A question arose concerning how to keep the mind focussed on gleaning understandings from life experience, the true sense of duty, without becoming enslaved by the senses. This was a challenge for the teachers as well as the aspirants they guided. My suggestion was to place the question “What will God have me do today?” on the mirror they use in the morning. Each day, the teachers were to read this question and spend their day going about answering it. As American philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82) wrote:

“So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When duty whispers low, Thou must, the youth replies, I can.”

When you realize your Maker has a plan for you, you have the courage to rise above the throng. You can do what you must, regardless of physical age, race, status, or culture. When your mind is filled with thoughts directed toward God you are no longer afraid of others’ judgements. You are generous, welcoming what they offer, for you have learned to hear the “voice of God” everywhere.