Baha'i Perspectives

shadi July 21st, 2009

No one told me that more often than not, the first three or four months of a typical pregnancy is really not that fun. You’re nauseous, you find most foods repulsive, you can smell cigarette smoke from a mile away, you want to sleep 20 out of 24 hours, and barely anything is happening (or so you think) physically! Is there really a baby in there? You think to yourself: I hope all of this is going somewhere.

Then you hit the second trimester, and pregnancy is finally beautiful or at least WAYYYYYY better than your first trimester. You’re finally showing a nice little belly that you worked hard to build. Now you’re getting excited and starting to feel your baby move. And if you want, you get to find out the gender and begin brainstorming about potential names.

And then the final trimester hits, and here I am. I stare at my belly moving up and down in various spots thanks to baby’s now powerful punches and kicks (and kisses?) and it REALLY hits me that in less than three months, my husband and I and the rest of our family are going to meet this new small human being that we are responsible for nurturing twenty four hours a day for a long, long, long time.

And I find myself not so much anxious about the whole feeding, diaper changing, sleepless nights thing (although I have been assured by recent moms and pops that we are in for a ride) but more the great responsibility of raising our daughter with spiritual values. Honestly, that scares me more than labor.

What if I don’t do it right? What if in my valiant efforts to do it right, I over do it?

Thank God (literally) for the Writings. I want to share three well laid out steps I found in a thin but rich book called A Baha’i Parenting Programme. The section is very conveniently called “How to attract children to spiritual ideals” (it’s like they wrote it for me!) and it says:

(a) By Example:

Take heed, O people, lest ye be of them that give good counsel to others but forget to follow it themselves.
-Baha’u’llah, Gleanings, p277.

(b) By telling them of the lives and teachings of the Prophets, and by precepts, stories and parables:

With the ‘Dawnbreakers’ in your possession you could also arrange interesting stories about the early days of the movement which the children would like to hear. There are also stories about the life of Christ, Muhammad and the other Prophets…
-Letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, Baha’i Education, p66

(c) By encouragement:

Whensoever a mother seeth that her child hath done, well, let her praise and applaud him and cheer his heart; and if the slightest undesirable trait should manifest itself, let her counsel the child…
-‘Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i Education, p53.

And now, I want to reach out to the wider Baha’i Perspectives community and ask for your thoughts and advice on this topic.

Are there any inspirational writings or guidance that you can offer regarding raising children with spiritual values, including from other faiths or traditions?

Are there any personal stories you would like to offer in your journey to help promote spiritual values in your family?

Please share your thoughts with us.

Tags: parents, pregnancy

• Baha'i Concepts , General Interest
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