lets hear it for the boys
My friends and I have been doing a Baha'i children's class at their apartment building in Minneapolis. All the kids are Oromo, Ethiopian, or Somali, and we usually only find boys. Today we talked about purity of heart, and I sat with one
of the younger boys, Abel, talking about the picture he was coloring in and the quote at the bottom of it: "My first counsel is this; possess a pure, kindly, and radiant heart."
The conversation led to what he does to help his parents and siblings, and he said "I hug them, and I give them flowers...and trophies!"
I noticed that these kids talk about God a whole lot. Some are Muslim, some Christian - most of them think about God every day (or at least hear about God from their parents). As we talked about a story of Abdu'l-Baha, one boy - the one in the picture, on the right asked me who I think God is. This was actually a difficult question. I've never tried to explain my belief in God to a child before. I thought back to a beautiful discussion in one of the books of the "Ruhi" curriculum, a sequence of courses that are part of an international training institute, designed for people of every background and religion. The discussion that came to mind was a hypothetical one laid out in Book 6 between a young girl named Anna and her friend Emilia, where Anna explains to her friend many important concepts within the Baha'i Faith, including God. The tough part was making this accessible to a child who has only learned English in the past several months and has his own ideas of who God is. Still, I'm glad I opened my mouth and said something rather than backing out and avoiding his important question.
I really love all of them so much. The one on the left has a sweetness about him, I can't put my finger on it, but he just melts my heart. Today at the end of the class, which we do every Saturday and plan to keep doing, he said "Hey! Maybe we can do this again next week!"
The conversation led to what he does to help his parents and siblings, and he said "I hug them, and I give them flowers...and trophies!"
I noticed that these kids talk about God a whole lot. Some are Muslim, some Christian - most of them think about God every day (or at least hear about God from their parents). As we talked about a story of Abdu'l-Baha, one boy - the one in the picture, on the right asked me who I think God is. This was actually a difficult question. I've never tried to explain my belief in God to a child before. I thought back to a beautiful discussion in one of the books of the "Ruhi" curriculum, a sequence of courses that are part of an international training institute, designed for people of every background and religion. The discussion that came to mind was a hypothetical one laid out in Book 6 between a young girl named Anna and her friend Emilia, where Anna explains to her friend many important concepts within the Baha'i Faith, including God. The tough part was making this accessible to a child who has only learned English in the past several months and has his own ideas of who God is. Still, I'm glad I opened my mouth and said something rather than backing out and avoiding his important question.
I really love all of them so much. The one on the left has a sweetness about him, I can't put my finger on it, but he just melts my heart. Today at the end of the class, which we do every Saturday and plan to keep doing, he said "Hey! Maybe we can do this again next week!"
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