‘Out of the mouths of babes’ – the wisdom inherent in all children
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‘Out of the mouths of babes’ – the wisdom inherent in all children
According to a popular idiom, they say great wisdom comes ‘out of the mouths of babes’ and I am sure there are many parents, grandparents, teachers, carers, aunties, uncles and the like that could fill a book of quotes on what they have heard the children around them say.
Interestingly, this idiom is adapted from a passage in the Bible in Psalms 8:2 where it states; “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength". Or in another translation: “God ordains strength out of the mouth of babes and sucklings”. Meaning that there is a deeper intelligence and wisdom that we, as very young children, have access to within us that gives us a ‘strength’ (the ability to live a true life without getting knocked off course) well before we attend an educational institution and adopt the externalised intelligence on offer there. This wisdom is one that we all recognise and have access to.
So, what is this wisdom and where does it come from?
No matter the circumstance, we are each born into this plane of life with a part of us that is pure, pristine and complete and in absolute knowing of who we are and where we come from – a place untouched by physicality but able to be accessed through every particle of our physical form. Each and every last one of us, regardless of religion, race or creed, has access to the wealth of Universal intelligence (God’s wisdom) that is constantly pouring through us. It is our movements and our movements alone that determine how much of this multidimensional intelligence is accessed and sadly, for the most part, we have all been conditioned from young to move (think, speak, act) in such ways that inhibit this expression.
How we are raised and the environment we are then subjected to, both at home and later during school, shape us into the person we present to the world as an adult. This will often depend on how our parents were raised and their parents and so on, as does it depend on the quality of the school environment, the teacher, our experience etc.
In one respect it can be said that children do not have to ‘learn’ anything, for, through the connection with the inner-heart, all is known. Children simply require absolute and unyielding support, to the best of our human capability and without perfection, to not sever this connection so they are best placed to then acquire the necessary skills for life as it is today.
This means that our number one job as parents and educators of children is to ‘get ourselves out of the way’ and support the child to remain in connection to what they naturally know and how to respond to each moment as it arises. That is, by not imposing our ideals on them, we are better able to allow the space for all that is naturally within them and expressing through them to be the norm, without any need to squash and control it with an ideal, belief or picture of ‘how it all should be’, according to that which we may have taken on in our own lives.
All we need to do is to allow that innate wisdom to inform the way we live life. It is this way of living that we can all reconnect to and our children, at times, can become our greatest teachers.
For our Soul is the true parent. With its qualities of Love, Truth, Harmony, Stillness, and Joy, it knows how to move in respect to all that we are part of, so that we do not cause a disturbance in the greater ‘flow of life’. In order to allow this as parents and educators, we need simply reconnect to the innate wisdom held deep within us and let the love here inform the life we then lead and thus all we then impart/reflect to the children in our care. If we have drifted away from this expression as an adult, then it is we who need to re-learn how to be with Soul and this is why our children at times become our greatest teachers.
As children, when we are fresh back into the world, we are naturally Soul-full and geared towards expressing from the heart and the body as per our divine design. A child will keep expressing in this way if not imposed upon or corrupted in any way. This is because children tend to live life predominately from their bodies and not (yet) from their heads. Nor will they override what the heart feels with what the head ‘thinks’ unless they are taught to do so.
True wisdom is knowledge lived.
In the first 5 or so years of life, children are very in tune with their clairsentience (our energetic awareness – the ability to read energy and feel life) and thus alive with natural wisdom. They feel life with their whole body and express from this sensitivity. From age 5, 6, and 7 onwards, as the child enters the education system, if we do not actively support this expression it will become buried below a mountain of acquired knowledge, thereby seeing a shift from heart-based thinking (Soul) to predominately head-based thinking. That is – we see the child go from our natural disposition of multi-dimensional intelligence (divinity expressing through physicality) to a vastly reduced form of intelligence that is solely mind-based ‘intellect’ that we then champion as the norm. We even shower the growing child with accolades and awards if they perform to the standards we set in the education systems we have established.
But what are we really championing? Sadly, it is the ‘successful’ reduction of universal wisdom into knowledge-based entirely on recall and nothing more.
Therefore, we have a responsibility as parents, guardians and educators of our children to rekindle such wisdom within so that we can provide them with an education that covers all the necessary learning but does not bombard them with excess knowledge and expected ways to be, think, speak, act at the expense of this innate wisdom.
A few examples from my personal life to illustrate the above points:
I remember when our eldest daughter Ruby was 4, she was playing with our younger daughter Lulu who was 1. A tension arose and the situation was quickly escalating to a fight. Ruby was able to stop herself, find something she knew her sister would like and give it to her. She then came over to me grinning, and told me what she had done saying: "My body just told me how do that"
On another occasion, still age 4, Ruby was heard to say the following:
“I always be nice to Lulu but sometimes I'm not. Sometimes my head pushes my body out and has control and that’s why I sometimes be mean but then I come back to my body and my body has control and I be nice to Lulu again.”
When Lulu was 3 and Ruby was 6, the following conversation took place between us:
Lulu: “Who made the trees?”
Me: “God”
Lulu: “Who's God?”
Ruby: “Yourself and the whole world”
However, do not expect such wisdom on demand if you are asking to get some sort of ‘right’ answer. As evidenced in this exchange with Lulu shortly after:
Me: “Tell me about God”
Lulu: “Mummy, well I can't tell you about God, it's a bit too tricky. I can tell you about crocodiles... or Elsa.”
To which 6-year-old Ruby responds: “God moves with you and in you. When you speak from your heart that is God.
Me: “Lulu, my head hurts. Would you like to give me some healing for it?”
Lulu: “No. Just think about your day and your headache will go away.”
What is remarkable here is that at 3 years old, Lulu is offering the space for me to take responsibility for the movements in place that led to my headache arising, rather than ‘taking it all away’ for me on my request.
“When peoples are mean to you, you should always tell your mums so you don’t be sad. Then you can be happy in your heart.” – Lulu age 4
Lulu (4yrs): “We do have sparkles! In our tummy”
Me: “What do they do?”
Lulu: “They light us up.”
Me to Lulu in wonderment: “Who are you?
Lulu: (smiles)
Me: “Where did you come from?”
Ruby: (answering for her) “The stars”
Lulu: (looking deep into my eyes) “I came from the whole world”
Me: “Did I make you?”
Lulu: “No, (laughing) God made me.”
I am the first to admit that I do not always put my children to bed in the quality of love they (we all) deserve. Sometimes I let the seeming ‘struggle of life’ get on top of me and by the day’s end, if I have not deeply cared for myself during the day, I am tired and irritable and just want to go to sleep. This means zero connection to myself and therefore zero connection to anyone else. Children have a radar for this.
Lulu (4yrs): “Sometimes when you put me to bed you give me a nightmare”
Me: “How do I do that?”
Lulu: “…um, I don't know”
Me: “It's ok to say. Is it when I feel grumpy?”
Lulu: “It’s in your voice”
Yes, while we may not want to admit it, abuse begins at the level of the tone in our voice. We all feel it all, all the time. As adults, we learn not to say anything. Young children do not have this barrier in place.
On another similar occasion, recently (as I had obviously learned nothing previously!) I was putting both girls to bed when Lulu looks at me, with no malice or hurt but simply states matter-of-factly: “When I get older I’m going to have kids and be frustrate with them like you are with us.” Which had the effect of immediately snapping me back to myself and out of my ‘stuff’ as I realised what she was saying was something along the lines of: ‘I see what you are reflecting and if this doesn’t change, then I will copy it (take it on) so then I will reflect it back to you.’
Is this not the pathway of what we deem to be ‘family traits’?
Me: “Why do you ask so many questions?”
Lulu: (smiling) “Because that’s what Lulu does”
My children are not special or unique. In essence, they are the same as every other child and this includes each of us when we were children too.
Deep down we all know that great wisdom and strength comes ‘out of the mouths of babes’ because we are each a child of God whose undying love and wisdom continually flows through us, regardless of whether we access it or not.
Filed under
Children, Connection, Education, Nurturing, Raising children, Intelligence
