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.
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