Tapestry of Faith: Amazing Grace: A Program about Exploring Right and Wrong for Grade 6

Taking It Home: Spirituality and Me

Part of Amazing Grace

The spiritual journey is the process of learning to know oneself and becoming self-aware. We learn to love ourselves as the sacred beings that we are, and discover in that love that we are connected to all that exists; thus we develop compassion and strength.

— Elisa Davy Pearmain

IN TODAY'S SESSION... We did a play about lost kids who were soul-searching and found a guru who spoke about conscience and soul and spirituality. We listened to spiritual music, talked about how important different advisors are to us, and we heard two stories, one about God hiding in people and the other about knowing ourselves. For Faith in Action we used our soles with an "e" to think about our souls with a "u."

EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about...

  • Souls. Do people in your family think about their souls? Worry about feeding them with spiritual ideas? What are some of their favorite "soul foods"?
  • Your consciences. Are they strong enough? Do they feel too strong sometimes? Do you ever stop yourself from doing fun things because your conscience says not to?
  • Advisors. Who outside your family do you and others think make good advisors?
  • This quote is often attributed to C. S. Lewis: "You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." What does this mean? Does it change the way you think about your soul? Is it useful?

EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Try...

  • Talking about what you can do as a family to make the world a better place. Maybe you can choose a section of highway, or another piece of public land, to keep clean. What else can you do?
  • Deciding which of your family decisions involve ethical choices. In other words, decide together as a family when a decision involves right and wrong. Is choosing which TV show to watch ever an ethical decision, or does that not matter? What about deciding whether to go along on a trip to buy groceries?
  • Sharing what your consciences say. The next time your family needs to make an ethical decision, take a moment to sit quietly together and then let everybody say what their conscience is telling them to do.

MYSTERY AND ME

Take some personal quiet time and think about soul. What is it like? How would you describe it to a friend? If you are journaling, write your description of it and list some of the ways you feed your soul.

A FAMILY RITUAL

Talk each day about the right and wrong you have experienced. Did you each do something good you want to share? Is there somebody in the family you want to thank for a virtuous act? Is there something you wish you had not done that you need to talk about? How can you make tomorrow a better day?

A FAMILY GAME

Does your family enjoy playing board games? The next time you play, look for situations that involve decisions. Examine how family members make those decisions. For example, in playing Sorry, if you have to decide which player to bump back to Home, how do you make that decision? Do you choose the player closest to winning, the one who has been bumped the least, anyone but your younger sibling, or the one who will benefit you most?

FAMILY DISCOVERY

Spin the radio dial, or, if your radio has a scan button, let it go from one station to the next while everybody listens for spiritual sounds. Let anybody say, "stop" when they hear something that sounds spiritual to them and stop the search so you can all listen for a moment before moving on. Do you all agree on which music is spiritual?