Wired Or Connected?

Children absorb from the experiences they are exposed to from the time they are born to that time when independent thought becomes possible. In the sense that having been exposed to faith-belief - and taught through the ritual of church attendance and the even more important patterning picked up through directly witnessing their parents' commitment - that which has value to their families is important to them as well.

Believing that they belong to a spiritual community becomes an extension of the comfort derived from knowing/believing/feeling that they 'belong' to a family grouping where they are loved and cherished and protected and exposed to social conditioning. What is most certainly deep-wired into the human sub-conscious is the comfort derived from being with others like ourselves; deeply valuable human contact on a highly emotionally-satisfying scale.

So it is hardly surprising that a University of British Columbia study has reached the conclusion that children's spirituality is linked with happiness. In emulating their parents' stable religious commitment they, in their turn, affirm their 'belonging' to their family, adopting critical social and religious values as their own, conforming to parental expectations. Which engenders a state of satisfaction and comfort.

When children, aged eight to twelve were questioned about their faith attachment by agreeing to a blanket statement: "I believe in a higher power who watches over me" to measure spirituality, they were responding as would be natural for them, given their familial and faith-exposure situation. Throughout their most impressionable and adaptive years these children were exposed to a way of life that was important to their families, and thus, to themselves.

What is construed as "happiness", would be satisfaction with their place in the world, within the family and the larger, extended family of the church. Humans are creatures of habit and routine, we stick with the tried and the true, we comport ourselves in a way that we are taught is acceptable and needful, and through careful guidance we accept the values and the priorities of our parents, including most certainly, a faith-attachment.

The concept of a kind and loving overseer whose benevolence knows no bounds in His concern for His flock is a readily-grasped one by children. Is that not a comfortable thought? That wherever you are, whoever you happen to be, whatever you do, a spiritual figure of great mystery and power oversees all. And hence the need to behave in a manner that will please that mysterious, all-powerful spirit.

Children are naturally open to ideas of mystery, and of natural justice; they are intrigued by these adventures of the mind. Their malleable minds set within personalities that have been manipulated from infancy within the framework of a family structure that is sound and reliable, helps them to extend that structure to incorporate a larger family structure that religion represents.

There are supreme assurances in these comforting structures or social-religious constructs. If the family somehow disintegrates, loosens its structure, there is still always that other, larger family which remains intact, offering constant comfort - and an ongoing avenue for satisfaction and happiness.