Class Objectives: make the children aware that Self-knowledge is imperative for the progress of the spirit. This is the reason why we should pay close attention to ourselves to find out how we can improve. Therefore, it is necessary to develop self-acceptance, which strengthens our patience and helps us live in harmony with ourselves and with others. Please help the young children to recognize they are special beings created on God’s image. We are all God’s masterpiece under progress; hence, no one should feel useless or inferior.
Initial Prayer
First: please ask the children to define self-knowledge and self-acceptance. Please establish a dialogue with them in regards to these definitions.
Self knowledge - an understanding of yourself and your abilities; getting to know what you like and what you don’t like; your wishes from life; things that are important for you; feelings we have in certain situations (for instance, what we feel when our parents call our attention, when someone does not agree with our opinion, when we hear bad/good news, when we are provoked by someone, etc).
Self knowledge is not just useful for us to realize our imperfections but also to understand our true value. As we learn to reflect on ourselves, it becomes easier to reflect about the world and people around us. Please remember that there is a big difference between the intelligent and the wise. The last one is capable of analyzing the same question through several different angles.
Self-acceptance - It’s an agreement with yourself to appreciate, validate, accept and support who you are at this very moment, even those parts you’d like to eventually change. It is to recognize mistakes and achievements, respecting yourself as a spirit in evolution. It means not feeling anger or sad because you still haven’t acquired the good attitudes you wished for. It is to accept your physical body the way it is (your hair color, height, weight, change of voice, changes in the adolescence period, etc). Please remind the children self-acceptance doesn’t mean we need to remain the way we are and avoid change, but it means having a positive attitude of getting to know ourselves and being okay with those parts of ourselves we want to change some day. Besides, self-accepting strengthens our patience and faith; helps to live in harmony with ourselves and with others.
Second: please ask for each child to answer the following question about themselves: Who am I? (Please wait for their feedback).
Third: please relate
The immortality of the soul.
Fourth: please complement the answers received back from the question asked at the 2nd moment.
We are all eternal spirits. We have a physical and a spiritual body. We belong to God’s Universe, which is immense. We belong to it materially and spiritually; that is, we are the union of the spirit with the matter. We are subject to the Law of Evolution. Those who possess a virtue have acquired it through their own efforts during successive lives, by ridding themselves, little by little, of their imperfections. We will all reach spiritual plenitude as we progress through our successive incarnations. As the soul advances along its path to evolution and spiritualization, it will slowly become enlightened, and so little by little divest itself of its imperfections according to the greater or lesser goodwill it demonstrates within its freewill.
We are all God’s masterpiece under development; hence, no one should feel useless or inferior.
Fifth - please question:
By what means can we acquire self-knowledge? At the close of each day examine your conscience, review all that you had done, and asked yourself whether you had not failed in some duty, whether some one might not have reason to complain of you. You can succeed in obtaining knowledge of yourself and in ascertaining what there is in you that need reforming. He who, every evening, should thus recall all the actions of the day, asking himself whether he has done ill or well, and praying God and his guardian angel to en-lighten him would acquire great strength for self-improvement, for, God would assist him. Examine what you may have done, first, against God; next, against your neighbor; and lastly, against yourself. The answers to these questions will either give repose to your conscience, or show you some moral malady of which you will have to cure yourself. – comments from question 919 from The Spirits' Book.
It was suggested by the students to make a list of good things they did and another one with things they could have improved on. This was written on a notebook which was previously intended to do so. This would enable them to analyze their imperfections, think about each one of them at a time and search for another attitude which can be taken next time this situation happens to them. These notes could be done daily by each teen.
Sixth: please question the children:
01 – Please ask them to think about things they would like to change on their physical body – please ask the children to share this with the group, if they feel like it. What would they like to change? Why is that?
Please talk to the children about the need to accept ourselves the way we are. God gave us the opportunity to reincarnate once again. This should be the main reason for us to accept our physical body the way it is. Please remember them there are people who reincarnate with physical problems, disabilities, etc. Many of these brothers and sisters are able to fulfill their daily activities just as a normal person does. It does not really matter how we look outside but how we feel inside.
– Besides our appearance, what else makes us different from others?
Things we like and we don’t like; our talents; our virtues.
03 – What is the advantage to be the only person in the world who looks like me?
We feel special; this is the way our Father sees us. We are different because each one has your own unique and individual evolutionary path.
04 – Do you always like yourself? Please ask them to justify their answers.
Seventh: please establish a dialogue with them:
It doesn’t surprise us the tendency that children/teens have to value themselves according to the society. People who look attractive, athletic, who are intellectually talented or socially accepted tend to feel good about them because they are accepted by the people who surround them.
Younger children normally compare their abilities with others. The ones who are the last in finishing their activities, the shy ones or the last ones to be chosen to be part of a team very often feel negative about themselves. “I will never be good enough”; this can become a dangerous mental attitude very early in life.
Older children might feel safe belonging to groups who wear the same type of clothes, talk and act on the same way. They need to be challenged to express their own individuality. This was given to us by God in a creative and constructive manner.
Children/teens need to understand that values in the family of God are different. The individuals are valued as unique creations of God; no matter how the external package looks like.
Eighth: please tell them the story
The unhappy lime or
To be or not to be... distinct.
Ninth: please explain that we will talk about what makes us feel good about ourselves and what makes us feel bad.
The spiritist teacher should read several sentences out loud. Please ask the children to smile as you tell them, if they feel good about themselves. If they don’t feel good about it, please ask them to make a sad face. If the children feel more or less, please ask them to remain with the same face; that is, looking indifferent.
** The spiritist teacher could question their physiognomies **
Please read the sentences displayed here below each at a time. As soon as you read one, please pause so the children can respond with their physiognomies. This will enable the spiritist teacher to observe and question them:
Suggestions:
Someone says: I didn’t like your haircut.
You have created a lovely drawing/text and the teacher wants to display it at the wall so everyone can see it.
You broke a glass in the kitchen.
Your parents grounded you for two days because of the mess in your room.
You had a fight with your brother/sister or a colleague.
You got a new set of clothes and feels really good wearing it.
You received a new letter or e-mail from a friend who lives in another city.
You learned to play a musical instrument.
Your colleague threw candy wrapper on the floor.
You were the first to be chosen from the group when the basketball/volleyball/football teams were formed.
You had to go to spiritist education classes even though your leg was covered with plaster.
Your dad called your attention in front of your colleagues.
On your birthday you got many presents.
No one takes your opinion seriously just because you are a child.
One of your colleagues offends you.
The spiritist teacher now should ask now:
Do we all feel good or bad about the same things? (Most of us do, but not exactly in the same way).
What does that say about us? (We are all very different; but, we all have feelings.)
Which sentence made you feel worst, from the list I just read?
Now you need to imagine this actually happened; would this make you look less important for God? Would He love you less for that? Why? (No, God loves us even though we commit mistakes and have imperfections).
CONCLUSION: We all have many qualities within us, but we also have imperfections we need to make efforts to change into virtues. Many of things that make us feel good or bad about ourselves happen externally – what type of day we had or how are we looking like; our appearance. But God cares about how we are inside, which is why we need to start carrying our own inner reform as soon as possible. We can do this by overcoming our imperfections, transforming them into virtues. It is an individual task and a commitment to you. No one can do this on your behalf.
We will be happier the more we analyze our thoughts, feelings and attitudes, with the objective of making less mistakes and progressing. For example: who enjoys gossiping about others must learn to see positive aspects in his colleagues; who enjoys complaining must make an effort to thank for everything he had and complain less; who are used to lying, must learn to always say the truth.
Tenth: please ask the children to mention virtues they consider important to be developed by everyone. The student who is helping today will write down all the virtues mentioned in the board.
**You could later on talk about the importance of the virtues related on the board.
Closing Prayer:
It’s Wonderful.
Class suggested being suitable for: 3rd cycle (11 to 12 years old).
This class was sent to us by Sandra Ramos Medeiros, Spiritist Centre Fé, Amor e Caridade - Campo Grande/MS.
Translation: Carolina von Scharten, London, Sir William Crookes Spiritist Society linked to BUSS - The British Union of Spiritist Societies.
