Children often sense the sacred more readily than we can

Reader Responses

What was your experience of spirituality as a child?

How would you explain the Divine to a child?

My first experience of silence was when, as a four- or five-year-old child, I discovered a cherry tree in the wonderful garden of our home whose lower branches grew almost horizontally. Two of them were so close together at the same height that I could lie across both of them after climbing up onto them with the help of a small ladder leaning against the trunk. I often sought out ‘my place’. With closed eyes, I listened in the silence, to the sounds of nature. Without being able to put it into words at the time, I felt one with my surroundings. That was surely my first spiritual experience, my first sense of feeling secure in the flow of Life.

Maurice C., Schwabsoien, Bavaria, Germany

My experience of spirituality came through my paternal grandparents, who taught me most things worth knowing. They simply lived it. My grandfather was a very philosophical farmer. A deep man who thought deep thoughts on a tractor or fishing on a river bank. He explained to me that Source existed in all things, that every living thing was connected to Source and one another. That what we did to one we did to all. I was only in a church a dozen times growing up and that was an interdenominational congregation. I only knew one Bible verse and that was the one about entertaining angels unaware, the one my grandfather held as most valuable.

Gayla J.-H., Grand Island, NE, USA

While I grew up in an evangelical/fundamentalist branch of Friends and was subject to pretty horrific altar calls accompanied by visions of burning in hell for eternity, the Christian Quaker life I experienced in my family was one of "tough love," and I suffered no long-lasting spiritual scars from the revivalists.

Max C., Greensboro, NC, USA

My parents divorced when I was four years old. It was a confusing and anxious time. We lived with my Quaker grandparents for a time, and it was the conscious beginning of my spiritual life. I’d never gone to church or Sunday school before, but I had heard Bible stories despite my mother being what I later came to understand as agnostic.

Every Sunday my grandparents attended silent meeting for worship and allowed me join them if I wished. No First Day School. No other children. But it quickly became deeply important to me. The profound sense of peace, safety, and joy blended with the kindness, acceptance, wisdom, teaching, and loving attention of the adult Friends set me on my path to request membership at my first monthly meeting home at 16. At 77 years old those early experiences continue to be at the core of my spiritual journey.

Carroll Ann S., Marquette, MI, USA

I grew up in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in the 60s. I loved the quiet worship and occasional gentle messages, mostly nature-focused. I loved watching everyone quietly praying, watching the sun coming in from the very tall windows, feeling the history of the Quakers that came before me, the comfort of the wood, watching the elders on the facing benches. 

I am by nature a quiet listener, so this was all a very meditative time and was magic for me. It grounded my childhood and became a way to work out things as an adult. As an adult I came to know Jesus and the quiet worship made even more sense! 

Peg M.

Quaker youth group was critical for me. My kid doesn't have something similar. As a West Coaster, parent-led activities have gotten kids together sporadically, but it's not the same as having a non-parent mentor and core group, playing together and discussing the hard stuff. It's the fumbling and practice of Quakerism that my kid is missing. 

Meetings need to solidly invest in middle school and teen leadership. l was privileged, very privileged, in this respect - Go Richmond Young Friends!

Heather F.