¹³ Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; ¹⁴ but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” ¹⁵ And he laid his hands on them and went on his way.

Mathew 19:13-15

(Inspired by the sermon of a Catholic Priest, Rev. Fr. Stephen Thachil)

How many hours in a day? 24 hours (Typically 8 hours of work life + 16 hours of personal life)

How many years do we educate our children to prepare them for the work life (career)? Starting from play school or primary school to higher secondary completion (around ~14 years), followed by college/university education (~4 years), is about ~18 years on an average.

How many hours in a day we dedicate to work/career life? Typically ~8 hours. (Lets not consider workaholics, those who only consider work as life and all 24 hours is reserved for work for those. For such a person, eventually when they need to retire at some point, it may feel like dying even if they are physically alive, because they only had work life.)

What determines a person’s success? Is it the 8 hours of work life or the remaining 16 hours of personal life?

For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? (Mathew 16:26)

It’s the personal life, the part that gives us time to grow in relationship with God, our spouse, children, parents and friends, it is this part that makes our work life meaningful and our whole life successful. So if this 16 hours of personal life is a failure, then it makes our work life achievements meaningless and our whole life a failure.

So if we prepare our children for 18 years to thrive in 8 hours of work life, then how many years do we need to prepare our children to succeed in the 16 hours of personal life? 18 years X 2 = 36 years.

How many years of formation or preparation we really provide for our children to succeed in personal life???

It is not logical to expect our children to flourish, if we don’t provide the essential spiritual & moral formation. Lack of spiritual & moral formation could potentially lead our children to “Hell” eventually. “Failing to plan is planning to fail”.

If we want our children to reach Heaven one day, then we need to focus on spiritual and moral formation. We should prepare our children to lead a life of holiness and purity in a world that is filled with chaos, pride and abundance of sin.

Word of God says:

How can young people keep their way pure? By guarding it according to your word. (Psalms 119:9)

The Psalmist proclaims that guarding oneself according to God’s words and commandments is the secret to be pure. In other words, we need to sow “Word of God” in our children’s heart (the soil).

Now that we realize what to do, lets ponder a bit on how we can achieve this, not so easy task, in this age of AI, digital darkness, abundant emptiness and spiritual famine.

How can we prepare our children’s hearts (the soil) to receive the Word of God (the seeds) and bear fruits?