New Church Life Jan/Feb 2015 | Page 43

           6. “Forming Spiritual Habits.” Another useful question that could be asked with regard to children is what we most want to become habitual with them. As the picture associated with this way of framing New Church education indicates, we learn through repeated trial and error, or through practice. One teaching makes the claim that “people are not even able to walk, or to talk, until they learn how to do so; and the same applies to everything else.” (Arcana Coelestia 1050) It continues, “The things they learn to do become, through the performance of them, habitual and so to speak natural.” Consider almost anything you know how to do, from driving a car to looking both ways before you cross the street, to calculating times-tables in your head, to exercising, to playing an instrument. All of them involve habits – habits of practice or diligent effort, habits of frequency or things we choose to do on a regular basis, and habits of skill or things we become proficient in. So we can see the whole process of education as a series of habit-forming activities. The amazing thing, though, is that it’s not just about developing certain skills. It actually gets to the heart of character formation, and in spiritual terms, of the development of a heavenly disposition. We read: “Everyone acquires a disposition or nature from frequent practice or habit, and that practice or habit from the things he or she has learned.” (Arcana Coelestia 3843) This teaching goes on to say that what becomes internalized through frequent practice or habit “flows into action spontaneously.” So we ask again, what do we most want to become habitual with children as they grow? What do we want to flow spontaneously into action? The list includes such things as praying, frequent reading of the Word, considering the usefulness of what they are about to do before they do it, apologizing and taking responsibility for their actions, responding with kindness, speaking truthfully, treating others with respect, being generous with their time and energy, persevering, and many other things. An intriguing teaching along these lines says: “It is easy for manual laborers, porters and farm workers to work with their arms from morning till evening, but a delicate person of the nobility cannot do the same work for half an hour without fatigue and sweating.” (True Christianity 563) Along these lines, we’d love spiritual practices and good actions to become increasingly easy for children as they grow. 39