The Parent Garden Exercise

1. Use the format illustrated below to create a list of traits, behaviours, attitudes, etc., that spiritually minded parents would not wish to see manifested in their children.

WEEDS--------------------------------------------BLOSSOMS

                                      Hurtfulness                                                               Tenderness 

                                      Greed

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2.  When you have identified 20 or so negative traits, begin to fill in the Blossoms column with the opposites of Weeds, i.e., Hurtfulness - Tenderness, Greed - Generosity, and so on. You are free to use your computers and devices to find the antonyms for each Weed trait.

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3.  Discuss in your group what the Blossoms list illustrates. What is the picture that this list brings into focus? If you are working alone, prepare a brief talk that explains what is illustrated by your list of Weeds and Blossoms.

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4.  Gardens must be watered. Discus or create a list of parent behaviours that would be as water to the garden of children's hearts.

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5.  Gardens need to be tilled, that is, the soil needs to be regularly turned and loosened. Noting that Baha'u'llah has described soil as capacity and as knowledge and learning, discuss with the group or write a paragraph explaining, how parents might till the garden of a child's heart. 

 

 6.  Every garden needs ample sunshine to thrive. Discuss with the group or create a list of parental behaviour and child behaviours that might be as sunshine for these gardens.

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7.  Gardens must be weeded. Discuss with your group the most important aspects of weeding, or create a masterlist Best Practices when weeding a garden.

     a.  How might these practices be demonstrated by parents with regard to shaping the behaviour of their children?

     b.  What might be the roots of these weeds?

     c.  How often do we weed our gardens?

     d.  When do we stop weeding?

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8.  CHALLENGE QUESTION (Explore as a group or ponder as an individual viewer)

      a.  If the heart of each child is viewed as a garden, what then are its boundaries?

      b.  What difines the boundaries of the garden of the heart?

      c.  If a family has more than one child, what will be similar and what will be different about their boundaries?

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