The Unfolding Life: A Study of Development with Reference to Religious TrainingLamoreaux, Antoinette Abernethy
Religion
The Unfolding Life: A Study of Development with Reference to Religious Training
Lamoreaux, Antoinette Abernethy
Child development; Child psychology; Religious education
This other very important fact needs to be clear, that no amount of
energy put forth for another will mean development for him. He must
exercise his own arm for strength and solve his own problem. Development
only comes through the effort of each individual for himself; hence the
best teacher is the one who can rouse the pupil to the greatest
endeavor.
(4) Habit Formation.
It is impossible to act, physically, mentally or spiritually, without
making it easier to repeat the action, and soon ease passes to tendency,
then tendency to compulsion, and life is in the grip of a habit. This is
the inevitable outcome of activity, until "nine-tenths of life is lived
in the mould of habit."
If it be true that habit is "ten times second nature," the importance of
directing activity toward the formation of right habits needs no
discussion.
IV. The Fourth Principle of unfolding life deals with its crises. "The
crucial points in development are those times when new possibilities
begin to unfold."
The life comes from God complete in its possibilities, but at the
beginning all is in germ. As life progresses, development of these
possibilities proceeds, but it is not uniform. The body acquires ability
to control the larger muscles before it can adjust the finer and more
complex ones, as instanced in the child's ability to walk before he can
thread a needle. The mind is able to imagine before it can reason
clearly. The feelings center on self before they reach out to the world
around. As every new possibility begins to develop, two serious facts
must be remembered:
(1) Direction must be given in the beginning before tendencies are
fixed.
A beginning is always a time of easy adjustment and flexibility.
Business corporations can readily alter a course of action before a
policy has been established. The nurseryman can easily secure the
straight trunk of the mature tree in the yielding sapling. The law is
just as true when it touches human life. The trend of any possibility is
determined largely in the beginning of its unfolding. After that time
has gone by, conditions are practically fixed, and he that is unjust
will be unjust still, and he that is holy will be holy still.
(2) Future strength and vigor are largely determined in the beginning of
development.
It is well nigh impossible to overcome the effect of early neglect. If
the culture of the growing stalk is passed over, the corn in the ear can
not be full. If the bodily needs of the boy are unmet, he can not reach
his full development as a man. If his budding intellectual life, his
awakening feeling life, or the delicate unfolding of his spiritual life
is neglected, a complete, rounded out maturity is impossible. A starved
childhood is always the prophecy of a stunted manhood, while life
nourished in its beginning foretells vigorous maturity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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