Promoting Good Spiritual Values in Kids

Of all the aspects of parenting, the most important is teaching your children good values, according to Joyce K. Fittro, a certified consumer and family development agent with Ohio State University. A child̵7;s spiritual values guide his actions throughout his life. As a parent, you can promote good spiritual values every day by making your children aware of the feelings of others and the consequences of poor choices, as well as by using readily available resources.

  1. Role Models

    • Your children need to observe good roles models to understand what appropriate spiritual values look like, suggests Kevin Ryan with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. Choose the specific spiritual values that you want to impart to your children, such as unconditional love, honesty, responsibility, kindness and compassion. Ensure that your actions mirror the values you want your children to learn. You can also point out others that mirror those values, including grandparents, your spiritual leader and prominent people. Moreover, you can point out individuals whose lives oppose the values you want your children to have so you can discuss the negative consequences of not demonstrating positive values such as the repercussions that lying or dishonesty can have.

    Teaching Opportunities

    • When you make a conscious effort to teach spiritual values be aware of the daily opportunities to teach those values, such as when a child asks why a homeless man is standing on the corner with a sign asking for food. You can teach compassion by allowing your child to purchase a meal at a fast food restaurant and swinging back around to provide a meal for the man. This action helps your child make a moral connection between principles and actions. You can also explain why you make the choices you do or how you determine what is right in a given situation. You can also role play scenarios that allow your child to determine responses before he is confronted with a real choice.

    Resources

    • Use resources to help teach your children about spiritual values. For example, read stories from William Bennett̵7;s ̶0;The Book of Virtues" such as Aesop̵7;s ̶0;Frogs and the Well̶1; to teach self-discipline, or an excerpt from Dickens's ̶0;A Christmas Carol" to teach compassion. You can also search for books or videos online or in the library that portray and/or teach spiritual values. Further, you can take advantage of resource materials for spiritual teaching provided by your house of worship, the school system and community organizations.

    Practical Application

    • As your child matures, give her opportunities to put her moral foundation into practice. Help her become a volunteer so she can reach out to others. For example, she could become a pen pal to a homebound church member, work with a younger child who needs help with reading skills or collect food for a food pantry. This allows her to demonstrate the spiritual virtues she learned. Encourage her to live out her convictions in ways that make a real difference in her world.

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