10 Principles for Spiritual Parenting: Nurturing Your Child’s Soul by Mimi Doe and Marsha Walch, Ph. D. Library section8 K: Life Skills, Building Your Child’s Character. What really matters when you rear a child? These authors believe that children have innate spirituality but that it is lost over time, and that as adults we struggle to regain that spirituality we have lost. What if we could help our child tune into their innate spirituality so they would be aware of it all their lives? And what if, in the process, we can reclaim our own sense of connection with God and all creation? To me, this is the reason we bring our children to church and why we attend worship with them – to help them retain their sense of wonder in the creation, to find delight and replenishment in their spirituality, to insulate them with faith and courage as they get knocked around by life.
These authors offer ten principles for spiritual parenting, among them, “Know God Cares for You,” “Trust and Teach That All Life is Connected,”, “Allow and Encourage Dreams, Wishes and Hopes.” A chapter is devoted to each principle, with myriad examples of how to teach it and incorporate it into your daily life with your child. Throughout the book are quotations from parents and from children, often as young as five years, which demonstrate the uncanny spirituality that we all possess. Each chapter ends with “check in” questions for parents, for kids, and affirmations for adults and children, all based around the chapter’s principle. This is a lovely book. It is great to see how spirituality can be fostered and not left behind as we trundle our kids to school, lessons and play dates. ( )