CHAPTER 10: Children and the Way of Peace

I MET A COUPLE WHO WERE DETERMINED that they were goingto train their four children in the way of peace. Every night at dinnerthey gave a regular sermon on peace. But one evening I heard thefather scream at the older son.The next evening I heard the older sonscream at the younger son in the same tone of voice.What the parentssaid hadn’t made any impression at all—what they did was whatthe children were following.
Implanting spiritual ideas in children is very important. Manypeople live their entire lives according to the concepts that areimplanted in them in childhood. When children learn they will getthe most attention and love through doing constructive things, theywill tend to stop doing destructive things. Most important of all,remember that children learn through example. No matter what yousay, it is what you do that will have an influence on them.
This is a very challenging area for parents.Are you training yourchildren in the way of love which is the way of the future?
It concerns me when I see a small child watching the hero shootthe villain on television. It is teaching the small child to believe thatshooting people is heroic.The hero just did it and it was effective. Itwas acceptable and the hero was well thought of afterward.
If enough of us find inner peace to affect the institution of television,the little child will see the hero transform the villain andbring him to a good life. He’ll see the hero do something significantto serve fellow human beings. So little children will get the idea thatif you want to be a hero you must help people.
A minister I know spent some time in Russia. He saw no Russianchildren playing with guns. He visited the large toy stores inMoscow, and discovered that there were no toy guns or other toyimplements of destruction for sale.
Peaceful training is given in a few small cultures right within ourlarger culture. I knew a couple who lived for ten or twelve yearsamong the Hopi Indians. They said to me, “Peace, this is amazing—they never hurt anyone.”
I have walked among the Amish people myself. They have sizablecommunities. Peaceful, secure communities with no violence. Italked to them and I realized it’s because they learn, as little childrenonward, that it would be unthinkable to harm a human being. Thereforethey never do it.This can be accomplished if you are brought upthat way. Once a woman brought her four or five year old daughter overto me and said, “Peace, will you explain to my daughter what is goodand what is bad?” I said to the child, “Bad is something that hurtssomebody.When you eat junk food that hurts you, so that is bad.” Sheunderstood. “Good is something that helps somebody. When youpick up your toys and put them back into your toy box that helpsyour mother, so that is good.” She understood. Sometimes the simplestexplanation is best.
When my folks put me to bed they would say to me very wisely,“It gets dark so that it will be restful for you to sleep. Now go to sleepin the nice friendly, restful darkness.” And so to me darkness hasalways seemed to be friendly and restful. And when I’m either walkingall night to keep warm or sleeping beside the road, there I am, inthe nice, friendly restful darkness.
Children need roots somewhere while they are growing up, andparents might do well to choose the place where they want to raisethem before they have them.