Testimonials

Having morning family prayers is something I grew up with, but having a systematic approach that infuses Baha’u’llah’s words, virtues, and music into your morning devotions really carries that spirit through the rest of the day.

You find yourself humming quotes on the way to work, whistling the tunes while mowing the lawns and surprising yourself by doing those dishes before your wife has to ask.

There’s also something powerful about learning virtues together as a family. When your 3-year-old says “Daddy you need to use a kindly tongue”, it strikes a chord deep inside you that makes you want to be a better person for your kids.

We’ve been doing the Radiant Hearts program and talking a lot about friendliness this month, which is perfect because this is a virtue my three year old son struggles with – he can be very, very shy. Once he knows you he won’t stop talking, but the initial part of friendship has been hard for him.

We’ve been practicing saying hello and being friendly with stuffed animals, singing songs about friendliness, making up stories about friendliness, and he loves it!

Today we were at the park. In the past he’s preferred to just play alone and doesn’t usually talk to any other kids besides his sister. I was watching him running around today and I saw him walk up to another little girl. I was expecting him to then run past her, but he stopped, looked at her and said “Hi, what’s your name?” My heart leaped, I was so proud and happy. He then asked her several other questions and they played together for the next hour or so. Later, he stopped to ask another little boy his name. He was far enough away where he didn’t even know I was watching, he did it all on his own.

All our talk and practice with friendliness is really helping him to grow!

I love the Radiant Hearts program because it keeps us focused on learning about a virtue in depth in addition to helping us get in the habit of memorizing prayers and quotations as a family.

We are still developing a routine that works for our family around this program, but the beauty of it is that it is adaptable to whatever our circumstances happen to be on any given day.

We’ve been able to work in the activities when my daughter is most interested, and we sing the songs or prayers whenever the topic comes up though out our day.

Our family loves Radiant Hearts!  The kids are excited when we say it’s time for prayers and activities together.  We are working on marking it part of our routine.  It is our family’s time to explore things together.

The older two particularly enjoy singing, doing crafts and reading stories.  The melodies and images (and sometimes we make up hand/body signs) help them memorize and after a week they know the quotation and prayer by heart.

We use the quotation during the day for reflection.  For example, when they yell and scream at each other, I sing: “Deal ye one with another…” (the friendliness quotation).  And then I ask them: “Is that the friendly way of dealing with one another?”  This always results in two heads shaking and then we think together about how we can have deal with the situation in a friendly way.

Our one-year-old is still learning language.  The easy activities give her a feel for the virtue even if she is not able to verbalize it yet. When we did the friendly faces mirror activity she was delighted with our happy faces in the mirror, and the older two pointed out excitedly: “Look, Roya can be friendly, too!”

We have been using the Radiant Hearts program as part of our playgroup activities, we run a weekly playgroup for children aged 18 to 42 months. Children love to sing the prayers and do the activities and we often hear them say “gentle” or “share”. They love doing the activities of previous virtues as part of the singing and movement bit of the program.  We are so grateful for this material as it is easy to use and adapt to our needs.

Thank you so much for developing these truly wonderful materials.  My son (18 months) and I used the “Friendliness” materials last month and it was inspiring for both of us.  The activities and music are awesome, and your suggestions about various ways to use them are very helpful.  Looking forward to starting on the “Courage” materials now.  Thank you for supporting parents in the privilege and challenge of raising spiritually aware children!!  This is such a gift.

Thank you so much for creating such a wonderful resource.  I have gone from being a full-time Mom to a Mom and law-student this semester, and this curriculum has helped me to keep our family active in Baha’i education.  My daughter is three, and the only little kid in our Baha’i community.  I teach her lessons from this website at every feast.  I had confidence to ask our community to move our feast time from 8 to 7pm, knowing that I would have this curriculum to rely on in starting a children’s program.  Now our family is attending every feast, and my daughter is learning so much.  My daughter loves learning the prayers set to song and now all of our lullabies are Baha’i prayers.  Thank you!