I

could not finish the thoughts on this subject in the previous article and so I decided to do this one extra to exhaust the message therein. We have been talking about raising spirit-led children. We have seen that if you are to raise them to be spirit led,

1. 1. Teach them to cherish their inner compass
   2. Teach them to the importance of “self-extraction”
   3. Nurture and nourish their creative capacities
   4. Teach them to value Personal Growth/Personal Development
   5. Teach them to be humane

Transactional Culture

It is the last point of being humane that we need to clarify some things and exhaust those thoughts on paper. First off, our present culture is more of a selfish and self-centered culture than it is humane. I can prove this to you. [ictt-tweet-inline]Why is it that we are keen to do random acts of kindness when cameras are rolling? Isn’t it because we have lost touch of being humane?[/ictt-tweet-inline] Why would I want to record myself feeding children and post it on social media? Isn’t that supposed to be a natural thing to do?

I tell you what? [ictt-tweet-inline]The selfishness of the present age is so endemic that even the hints of selflessness have to be milked for likes, reputation, sympathy and at times, a quick buck! [/ictt-tweet-inline]The thing about this lifestyle is that it is increasingly becoming the way we do life. In other words, if we will not be intentional about raising spirit-led children, we will find them drifting into this selfish and transactional life without even questioning it. And when they get there, they would not even realize that they are lost.

Spirit Never Gives up

The spirit though will keep hinting to then over and over again, beckoning them to the right direction. What we need to understand this that what we learn as children we tend to get attached to it so firmly like super glue. It is because we trust our parents. It is because we are attached to the environments and cultures in which we are raised. If we are raised in a transactional and selfish environment, we naturally get attached to it regardless of how the spirit will be screaming.

Recap

In the previous article, we saw the following to be the characteristics of selfishness:

1. It’s A Limiting Spirit
2. It’s a Scarcity Spirit
3. It’s a competitive spirit
4. It’s a spirit with negative energy
5. It’s an insatiable spirit

The Humane Spirit

On the contrary, the following are the characteristics of the humane spirit with which all of us are born. So as we are raising spirit-led children, we ought to filter out their growth through the prism of being humane. How humane are they? You will discern that through the following characteristics of a humane spirit.

1. It’s an abundance spirit

Growing up in an environment of scarcity can cause someone’s attitude to be trained in getting and hoarding instead of growing and sharing. Let me make it clear. It is a spirit in both ways. It is the issue of an attitude. You can be raised in a poverty-stricken environment but be taught about the spirit of abundance that you will not recognize scarcity.

What happens with you is that every time there is “more” your abundance mentality is simply amplified. You can also be raised in an “abundance environment” at least materially, but still, harbour the spirit of scarcity. I see it all the time with some relatives and some bosses. For them, there is nothing like “enough”. They want to keep getting, hoarding and snatching.

To teach your children to be humane, we have to show them the value of the spirit of abundance. [ictt-tweet-inline]Abundance is not about quantity, it is about the quality of the spirit around it. A spirit of abundance is a spirit that is humane.[/ictt-tweet-inline]

2. It’s a spirit of Overflow

[ictt-tweet-inline]Did you know you cannot overflow off someone else’s stuff? Overflow is anchored in the total deployment of the self.[/ictt-tweet-inline] The humane spirit is aware that there is a “seed” that can always be nurtured to overflow to others. In fact, the humane spirit realizes that they must be humane because they have a seed that they have to nurture for the very reason of being a fragrance to others. The metaphor is that of a spring.

It never really dries up. It keeps refreshing as it is its nature. In raising humane children, we are teaching them to be more of themselves and to serve the universe with the overflow so to speak.

3. It’s a spirit that creates responsibility

To the humane, you have to be responsible at the core in two ways. First, you have to be responsible for yourself. In other words, you have to know that the universe requires you to serve. You become responsible for yourself being “enough” and “overflowing”.

Secondly, you are responsible for others that are around you. The humane spirit teaches you to know that if one man suffers, the whole of humanity does. It teaches you to be responsible in terms of proximity. If you know of anyone who needs help, you are responsible for bringing that help to them. Imagine raising children with this spirit.

4. It’s a spirit of collaboration

The humane spirit will teach you that you are not enough of yourself. You and I will need as much help as we can get from others. At the very core of collaboration, there is the humane spirit. We recognize that we are complete when we come out and help one another. We lock arms one with another and do wonders in the earth. Let’s teach this to our children too.

5. It’s a spirit that causes us to stretch and be Creative

To be humane is to find as many solutions as possible. You see, if you are selfish, it is easy not to stretch yourself or be creative especially on matters concerning other people. A humane spirit will fight and stretch and be as creative as possible until the issue at hand is resolved.

I think we will be doing our children a great service when we teach them to be humane. We shall pick this up in the next article.