Article February 12, 1979 Issue

Cherishing the world's children

MARSHA STACY BARRACK

Throughout history the arrival of children has generally been attended with joy. During biblical times children were considered very valuable—gifts from the heavenly Father—and being childless was regarded as a curse.

However, one custom practiced then was the binding of an infant in swaddling clothes immediately following its birth. Few societies today hinder a child by wrapping him in bands of cloth, but aren't there less obvious bands imposed upon our children to deprive them of their freedom—mental bonds consisting of various material beliets that obscure their real spiritual identity as children of God?

Two of the ways in which mortal mind—false, material belief—insinuates its arguments into our thought are through a false sympathy and through the attitude of society today toward children. Too often we are mesmerized by mortal mind's pictures of children as frail, incomplete mortals subject to certain ills and various stages of development and temperament. Or, through false education and general belief, we are fooled into an acceptance of modern society's many negative labels of children—such as "educationally handicapped," "retarded," and "burdensome." And because children are often thought to be a burden, because their rearing is said to require too much of a parent, there is a subtle, widespread resentment toward children in some societies today. They are often depicted as little unruly, self-seeking mortals, resistant to discipline, and possessing natures quite opposed to goodness and spirituality.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Spiritually impelled progress