When God created men, He created a creature with a dual nature, one of which may be termed physical and the other spiritual. The physical nature is composed of all our physical organs, the very physical being which we present to the world as “Martha Jones” or “Joe Public”. One of the most important physical organs which man has is his heart.

This organ, the heart, has the task of circulating the blood throughout the body, carrying life-sustaining substances which the body needs to sustain itself. If we do not take care of our heart by giving it the foods and exercise that it needs, it will deteriorate and with it all the physical organs which depend on an efficient working heart. A body is pronounced dead where the heart has ceased to function; but if the heart is beating, that body may be deemed still to be alive.

Just as there is a physical nature, so too there is a spiritual nature with a spiritual heart/mind. Unlike our physical nature, the spiritual nature is not visible, but it is no less real. Many of you when you were young had your heart broken because the attractive young girl or boy that you wanted to date rejected you or left you for someone else. Many of you have had a heavy heart owing to some tragedy in your life. The heart/mind is as real as the physical heart!

As the physical heart is the centre of the physical body; so too is the heart/mind the centre of the spiritual body.

The heart/mind distributes life-giving sustenance such as love, patience, compassion — all those attributes which we consider to be moral, virtuous, good; and just as the physical heart must be nurtured with the right foods, so too must the heart/mind.

We spend much time in expounding on the right foods for our bodies, such as vitamins, fruits, vegetables, etc, but we give very little thought to the “spiritual food” we need to nurture our heart/mind. Fortunately, we have several examples of the food that is necessary for spiritual growth and one such reference is the book called the Bible. There are many other books, but the message is similar: love thy neighbour as thyself. Forgive those who do you evil. Honesty, charity and good works are better than greed, usury, murder and mayhem, which have their own rewards.

Now to our children. We, the parents who have been given the gift of a child, have not truly recognised our children’s duality. We have come to believe that our children’s physical needs are more important than their spiritual needs and so we lavish them with the physical. They have computers, smart and not so smart iPhones, iPads, Xboxes, the best Jordans, etc. But what have they been given to nurture their spiritual needs?

“I want my child to have what I did not have” is one of the silly retorts of unthinking parents. But the result such actions is soulless, egotistical, uncaring, “I want it now” children. They have been given all the physical things that parents can give them, but have crippled souls because the very things that they have been given are helping them to be what they have now become — cold, uncaring, unloving and narcissistic individuals concerned only with their immediate gratification.

A steady diet of murder, mayhem and sexual perversion is being fed to our children on an unprecedented scale and there is no way to control it now. Pandora’s box has indeed been opened and our children are having spiritual heart attacks and strokes.

The rapid development of technology and the easy access to it through the internet, wi-fi and social media have ensured that control over our children is no longer in the hands of the parents, but the wielders and owners of technology. And just like Pavlov’s dog, they are responding to the unnatural, the mindless stimulation provided by the media. The message now controls the receiver.

And so, in the words of the poet:

“So, weep you ancients who deplore that old Bermuda is no more

They asked you gave without constraints, a generation now with no restraints.

You let them stray from paths divine, the twig is bent the tree inclined.

You fed their appetites so base, now nature’s fury you must face.

And now you wish someone to blame, Pandora’s box you now must tame.

Look in the mirror if you must see, the cause of all your misery.”

CLEVELYN CRICHLOW

Paget