The Conscious Parent

When we teach our children to find the smallest of things in their day
to reflect on with gratitude, we teach them that rather than needing this,
that, or the other thing, they have so much already. This in turn awakens
their desire to do good for others. In other words, acknowledging our
bounty fires our instinctive longing to serve others. To teach gratitude is
to foster godliness within our children, honoring their divine essence.
Unless we are in touch with our own divine essence, we will be unable to
encourage reverence for this in our children. Having said this, let me
caution that for our children to be in touch with the divine Presence in
their center doesn’t mean they need to manifest any special sort of
“greatness.” Rather, it’s to be acutely aware that our children are already
great in their natural, raw state of being. Only when we don’t honor our
own natural godliness as parents do we push our children to be
something we esteem “great,” with the thought that then we will honor
them. This is actually to dishonor their connection to the divine. To
recognize and express gratitude for their inherent divinity without their
having to accomplish a single thing is to be in touch with the element of
divinity in ourselves, and indeed in the whole of life.
If we live our life not with gratitude but with need and greed as our
motivators, seeking that which is brighter, flashier, and grander in the
hope of feeling fulfilled, this is the consciousness our children will
absorb. However, when we enjoy the air we breathe and the shade of the
tree we sit under, experiencing the divine Presence in everything, our
children learn to be content with what they already have. Then, if more
comes, there’s no attachment to it, just further appreciation.