Here are a few quotations especially relevant to using Radiant Hearts in the home.
It is for this reason that, in this new cycle, education and training are recorded in the Book of God as obligatory and not voluntary. That is, it is enjoined upon the father and mother, as a duty, to strive with all effort to train the daughter and the son, to nurse them from the breast of knowledge and to rear them in the bosom of sciences and arts. Should they neglect this matter, they shall be held responsible and worthy of reproach in the presence of the stern Lord.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Selections from the Writings of ‘ Abdu’l-Bahá, 1982, pp. 126-127)
Therefore the beloved of God and maid-servant of the Merciful must train their children with life and heart and teach them in the school of virtue and perfection. They must not be lax in this matter; they must not be inefficient. Truly, if a babe did not live at all it were better than to let it grow ignorant, for that innocent babe, in later life, would become afflicted with innumerable defects, responsible to and questioned by God, reproached and rejected by the people. What a sin this would be and what an omission!
Beware! Beware! that ye fail not in this matter. Endeavour with heart, with life, to train your children, especially the daughters. No excuse is acceptable in this matter.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Vol.III, p. 579)
Among these children many blessed souls will arise, if they be trained according to the Bahá’í Teachings. If a plant is carefully nurtured by a gardener, it will become good, and produce better fruit. These children must be given a good training from their earliest childhood. They must be given a systematic training which will further their development from day to day, in order that they may receive greater insight, so that their spiritual receptivity be broadened. Beginning in childhood they must receive instruction. They cannot be taught through books. Many elementary sciences must be made clear to them in the nursery; they must learn in play, in amusement. Most ideas must be taught them through speech, not by book learning.
(Talks of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: The Bahá’í World, Vol. IX, p. 543; Bahá’í Education, p. 73)
…there is no objection to children who are as yet unable to memorize a whole prayer learning certain sentences only.
(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, September 27, 1947) (Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 462)
Through the revealed prayers we seek communion with God; hence they must be offered with the utmost reverence and dignity. In teaching children to say prayers, it is desirable, even where an attitude of devotion prevails, not to use gestures and movement lest they become habitual accompaniments to those prayers.
(The Universal House of Justice, 1994 Mar, Dancing at Feast)
He is very glad to know that you attach importance to the training of the children, for whatever they learn in that early stage of their development will leave its traces upon their whole life. It becomes part of their nature.
The Master used to attach much importance to the learning by heart of the Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb. During His days it was a usual work of the children of the household to learn Tablets by heart’ now, however, those children are grown up and do not have time for such a thing. But the practice is most useful to implant the ideas and spirit those words contain into the mind of the children.
(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the Spiritual Assembly of West Englewood, October 19, 1932) (Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 150)
It is often difficult for us to do things because they are so very different from what we are used to, not because the thing itself is particularly difficult. With you, and indeed most Bahá’ís, who are now, as adults, accepting this glorious Faith, no doubt some of the ordinances, like fasting and daily prayer, are hard to understand and obey at first. But we must always think that these things are given to all men for a thousand years to come. For Bahá’í children who see these things practiced in the home, they will be as natural and necessary a thing as going to church on Sunday was to the more pious generation of Christians. Bahá’u’lláh would not have given us these things if they would not greatly benefit us, and, like children who are sensible enough to realize their father is wise and does what is good for them, we must accept to obey these ordinances even though at first we may not see any need for them. As we obey them we will gradually come to see in ourselves the benefits they confer.
(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, March 16, 1949) (Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 342)
He would not advise you to in any way force the teachings on your husband, but rather through prayer, love and example attract his heart to what he will be forced to see has not only made you a happier person but a better wife and mother than ever before. It is often most difficult to teach those nearest to us, but the Guardian will earnestly pray that your husband and children will join you in serving this wonderful Cause.
(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer: High Endeavours, Messages to Alaska, pp. 72-73) (Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 222)
