This evening Fr. Phil Massetti, Pastor at St. Joseph Marello Catholic Church in Granite Bay, convened a meeting on the World Meeting of Families, as part of the preparation for the Pope’s visit to Philadelphia in September for the Synod on the Family. Massetti’s main point for parents is simply this: “When you baptized your child, you agreed to the responsibility of protecting and nurturing the divine light in your child, who is new life and a gift from God.” Massetti then explained that the way to do this is to keep the light alive in yourself first.
Indeed, very much like the flight attendant’s direction which is to “put on the oxygen mask for yourself and then assist your child”, we cannot give what we do not have. And nurturing the divine light within requires faith because the power and control issues of the cyber-powered world can inspire a lie to become a real experience murdering the truth about our divine nature, as powerful, creative and caring spiritual beings. Some of the lies our children experience in the social network include: you are not pretty enough, smart enough, or good enough; the number of likes and followers on your Instagram account validate you; in order to express affection for a love interest I must send an explicit photo of myself; and life is pointless – there is no hope.
Related reading: Harvesting the good from evil in the social network
Anxiety is high when your cyber-social realm becomes a single point of reference for life. And in a hyper-connected world, we are all at risk of worldly influences that distract us from the truth about the divine nature of our being and our potential. So the challenge for parents is keeping their own divine light alive, in dealing with the day-to-day stresses and challenges. Below are some insights about life giving and life-robbing communication habits from Glasser’s Choice Theory. These Seven Caring Habits can be applied to establish open communication with your child so you can impart the spiritual wisdom of your faith in times of high emotion, conflict and stress.
Seven Caring Habits
- Encouraging
- Supporting
- Listening
- Accepting
- Trusting
- Respecting
- Negotiating differences
Consider that the opposite of caring habits kills open communication:
Seven Deadly Habits
- Criticizing
- Blaming
- Complaining
- Nagging
- Threatening
- Punishing
- Bribing, rewarding to control
It is not possible to impart your wisdom without open communication.
Source for Glasser’s Choice Therory:WGSI
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