I wouldn’t normally bring faith into this discussion, since I’m well aware, that many people are agnostic, atheists and non believers and personally I have the greatest respect for all views and accept everyone’s choices.
However for those of us with faith, whether we are Greek or Russian Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants of every denomination or members of another Christian dogma, I think we can agree on this one thing: The teaching of Christ is the most brilliant truth in our faith, regardless of the specific dogma we consider ourselves to be part of.
I have to bring this up, since I don’t think we take it seriously enough. It was our Lord who said that, in order to enter the kingdom of God, one must become like an innocent child. There are many passages in scripture, where Jesus refers to children as the proper state of man and I think we must devote to those words a little more contemplation.
He didn’t consider them immature or annoying, but he asked his disciples to let them come to him. I don’t want to quote specific passages, since I have written a whole essay οn this subject and to do so further would be redundant.
Be it as it may, we live in a world with little to no respect for innocence. We try to enforce onto children our own limited reasoning the so called common sense – well it’s more common than it is sense – by means of discipline and constant pressure, when we would be better off, if we showed them respect, and learned from the purity of their mind and the brightness of their feelings.
Yes, the children can save this world, not only because they represent our future, but mainly because they are the healthy cells of humanity and they come precisely for this reason, to teach us and turn us back into living empathic human beings, with the capacity to love, accept and forgive.
Either we accept the word of Christ as true or we don’t. However for those of you with doubt I feel the need to mention that it’s kind of a giveaway that he comes to say things with the sole purpose to heal our existential and spiritual sickness, to bring together our broken pieces, split asunder by our knowledge of good and evil described in the old testament.
What’s wrong with knowledge, you’ll ask. Nothing really, but the Truth is higher than any material knowledge or skill we may develop. Knowledge helps us mostly with matters of survival and makes our lives easier, but it’s the TRUTH and only the truth that deals with our very existential core. So the Lord tells us not to judge, unless we wish to be judged ourselves, by the measure of how true we’ve stayed to his original teaching.
That’s not some kind of ethical mumbo jumbo but it addresses the core of the matter. If you don’t judge other people, you stop dividing this world into a black and white chess board with good and evil pawns, and become free to love the difference in others and see their colorful essence, that makes them unique and special CHILDREN of God.
So to put our children in the center of our lives and rediscover our own hurt and oppressed inner child is our true salvation and, no matter what else we do, pray or partake in mysteries if this teaching is not followed properly and taken seriously we simply haven’t done enough.
It’s the child who becomes our true pastor, priest and teacher and can be of tremendous assistance to our constant fight for perfection and fulfillment. So please listen to your children, let them guide YOU, for a change. After all, for centuries adults are trying to make their children identical to them, and enforce this sick system on them and where exactly has that led us? To the brink of destruction that’s where. Why not stir up things a bit and give this system of despair a hard time, when trying to engulf our children. Let THEM teach us. Why would that be so terrible, to learn from your own child? After all, how much we have left to lose?
The mechanical artificial way of life advances. What other hope we have, if it is not our children with their living colourful souls, to get out of this in one piece and rediscover the only path leading straight to happiness. If their light becomes darkness, what else do we have to lean on? They are the light of our little worlds. Do we really want to pass through this life blind and fearful of every shadow the system conjures up to keep us frightened and alone?
I do hope I didn’t exhaust you with this post, but I felt it was time for this to be said. I hope soon to publish a book dealing with all those issues in greater depth. Bye for now.
Daphne Yakinthou 