It was a sunny winter afternoon and I was busy putting final touches to the Diwali decorations. Like most smart Mom’s, I had dressed up my kids in the morning and sent them to play in the playground while I was finishing off all the things I had planned for last night. When my kids came back in the afternoon I was expecting to meet hungry monsters. However, I wasn’t prepared for what happened next.
My kids were heartbroken because other kids in the park had unknowingly said some hurtful things to them. They were wondering why my kids were dressed up nicely and bursting crackers. “Why are you celebrating Diwali? Diwali is not your festival, your festival is Christmas”, said one of the kids to my baby girl. While another one said, “You will go to hell because you don’t worship our Gods”.
I wasn’t thinking about the misfiring bulbs in the lights anymore. For next one hour, I was explaining to my kids why being a Christian wasn’t their fault and that they should not feel any different just because some playground bullies does not want them to celebrate Diwali. I may have been calm in front of my kids, but I was questioning my religion and beliefs in a deep and profound way!
Where do our religious beliefs come from? We are what we are born into. We cannot choose our parents and we are just following what they have been following. Minutes after your birth, your name, religion, caste/sect and nationality is pronounced. And most of us will die defending our religion, something which we did not choose and had no control over!
Nothing wrong in being religious as long as we don’t hurt somebody else’s sentiments. At the end of the day, you could have been born into another household and would be then following another belief altogether.
It’s not easy when you are living amongst people who come from various beliefs and background. What I am teaching my kids is that they are Christians only because they are born into the Christian household. What matters, in the end, is that you are a Good Human. Be kind to everyone, don’t be judgmental and always stand for what’s right. If they will follow this, they will be religious as every religion preaches the same thing after all.
It gave me immense satisfaction when my 12-year old said, “Why is Donald Trump saying all these things? The bad guys don’t follow any religion and if they did then they won’t be bad”. That’s it, that’s what you need to remember son!
What an awesome first article Jemima. Loved reading your thoughts. Here is more power to you and many more articles 🙂
Thank you for pushing and encouraging 🙂
Wow…wow and wow… Very nicely written…lack of education in schools and by parents, and not teaching the kids right morals and values… I will never allow my son a Hindu by birth to disrespect any other religion. Living in US and celebrating Christmas (still the Christmas tree is up ).
Thanks, Sumit!I agree and same here.
Lovely article. I loved reading it through.
Thanks, Nitish!
Exactly this is what we all need to understand. Albeit this message could only be well absorbed by humans and not by religious goons!!!
Thanks for the feedback Simriti
Lovely article jemi👌thoughts coming straight from heart! Gud going n luking fwd for reading more such nice articles👍
Thanks, Mrs Singapore 🙂
Such a great article and sooo true. Something we all need to learn from. Well written Jemima. Cant wait for your next article. 😊
Thanks Kezia for pushing me to write. You will be my first proofreader always 🙂
Thats a great article and soo true. Hope we can all learn from it. Well written Jemima! Cant wait for your next one. 😊
Loved reading the article , very well chosen words that come straight from heart !!!! Wish it touches more hearts as it did mine !!!! Keep writing n inspiring people 😊👍🏻
Thanks Deepali
Well said jemi…i guess being born an indian its our pride n honor to hav the knowledge n pleasures of all the festivals n religions. ..our children celebrate evry occasion that is indian…and am proud of that…we cheer at ganesh vandana and also respect the early hours of prabhat feri…we dance during navratras and also enjoy the delecasies of ID….
how truely blessed r we…
Jai Hind
True that!
Well described.RELIGION means PEACE and from last few days the whole world is trying to understand what is religion and peace.in very simple words u said million dollars thought.thumbs up for kids,many times there innocence can teach us big lessons.
Thank you, Shweta for the valuable feedback!
Jem… Enjoyed reading it..way to go girls !!!
Hope to read many more of your articles 😘😘
Thanks Saroja !
This is a thought in most of the Indian’s, that Christmas is for Christian’s and deevali is for Hindu’s. We cannot stop this thought but for sure we can educate our children on this… This article is really good and the words used are simple yet awesome…
Thank you!
Very nice jemima…😘😘😘😘…so true…proud to have a friend like u
Thanks, Aarti 🙂 Promote it in the US of A 😉
Very nice jemima….😘😘😘…so true…proud to have a friend like you
[…] about it, even in our school it was taught to us clearly, God is everywhere. Treat everyone the way you want yourself to be treated. They were telling us the same thing from […]