Jewish, Parenting

8 Inspirational Life Lessons you Can Learn From your Child

There is something about a child that melts the hearts of adults. Beyond a small child's cute smiles and soft skin is a purity and innocence that we envy. We wistfully think back to our own childhood when things were so simple and straightforward. As adults there are many lessons we can learn from children and more specifically a child with special needs. In this post we provide you with eight spiritual lessons you can learn from a child.

1. The Engaged Child

Watch the child involved in an activity. Whatever the child is doing, there is the child, all the child.

2. True Naivete

What is it that the child has to teach? The child naively believes that everything should be fair and everyone should be honest, that only good should prevail, that everybody should have what they want and there should be no pain or sadness. The child believes the world should be perfect and is outraged to discover it is not. And the child is right.

 3. Childish Enthusiasm

A child's enthusiasm comes in a storm, taking over the child's entire world. That is why, when a child embraces a new, good trait, it enters forever.

4. Childish Delight

The child delights in the simple things of life. Sometimes that delight could lead in the wrong direction. But the delight in itself is good. We need to embrace and nurture the delight while weaning it from those things unwholesome.

5. Childish Love

A child gives love for the sake of love. Yet an adult can also learn to do the same.

6. Learning the Child

There are no one-way streets in our world. There is no way to give without getting; there is no one who gets but cannot give. So it is with the child. Just as the adult gives the child the knowledge and wisdom of life, so the child can give the adult the keys of how to live it.

7. Childish Teaching

A child cannot learn something without running out and screaming it to others. And so it should be with all those who have knowledge.

8. The Only Child

Why do parents love their children? Because the lower world reflects the higher world. And above, there is a Parent and He loves His children. Why do parents of an only child have such unbounded love for their child? Because this is the truest reflection of the world above: Above, each one of us is an only child, and His love to us is unbounded. These lessons were culled from the book Bringing Heaven Down to Earth, a compilation of teachings from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. You can purchase the book at amazon.com