Respect: Teaching Kids is the First Stepping Stone to Peace

As the drumbeat of division, derision, and destruction grows to a deafening level, we may wonder how we can ever draw our world back toward peace and positive forward motion. What is the catalyst to engage the global community to stand together as one?  We believe it is Respect for others, and for oneself. Most importantly, we can focus on nurturing the return to Respect for and with our children. This is how we create a culture of Respect for generations to come.

In Spiritual Playdate’s Respect Challenge, we invite children and adults to come together and read and repeat the In Lak’ech poem by Luis Valdez:

You are my other me.

If I do harm to you,

I do harm to myself.

If I love and respect you,

I love and respect myself.

This poem can be used to set a tone of Respect in meetings, classrooms, family gatherings, houses of worship, play groups, therapeutic settings, and more. To spread respect further, Spiritual Playdate has started a viral social media challenge: you can record yourself reciting this poem to each other, post to social media, and be sure to challenge friends and family to do the same.

As we speak this poem daily, it has a profound effect on how we view our world and how we choose to take action in it. If you are my other me, how could I ever lift my hand to strike you? Or speak words that would hurt you? Or deny you the basic necessities of life?  If you are my other me, don’t you deserve all the good that I seek for myself? Aren’t you worthy of a life of peace, love, joy, and fulfilment? Acknowledging our oneness with each other turns the tables on the “every man for himself” paradigm and lifts us out of the mire of the social divide that we see today.

This lesson can’t be shared early enough in a person’s life. At Spiritual Playdate, we often use Frederick Douglass’ brilliant quote, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken [adults].”  That’s why Spiritual Playdate, an online program teaching social, emotional and spiritual life skills, was created.  When we teach our children lessons of respect for themselves and others, we are creating generations of Peace Influencers.  When we help our children to know they are connected to every creation, they will care for our planet and its inhabitants.  We are already seeing the fruits of these teachings.  Young people around the globe are standing together to enact change and to guide us in healthier and more positive directions.

Respect opens the door to communication, which in turn creates a path to understanding, which then opens the heart to appreciation of our similarities and our differences.  That’s a foundation for peaceful coexistence.

We invite you to go to www.spiritualplaydate.com to find out more about how we are empowering children (and the adults who love them) to live in peace.