Growing Up. What Does Religion Say?(RE Grade 8 – 9)

Growing up looks at how a person passes through different stages to develop from an infant into an adult. Religion offers a wide range of perspectives on growing up, shaping moral development, relationships, and one’s understanding of the world.

• Everything that God created has the potential to grow. Growth involves a number of developmental stages that happen before an organism reaches full maturity. E.g., for a seed to germinate, it needs to grow into a small plant and then mature into a big tree.
• Just like a baby undergoes stages of development to become an adult and gets to be a responsible member of society.
• Growing up is not just about physical changes where the body gets bigger, but for a person to develop fully, he/she must undergo different types of growth as shown below:

These are:

1. Physical growth – the body increases in size and height, and various physical changes take place that will lead to reproductive maturity.
2. Spiritual growth – this involves a person getting to know and love God. As a person grows up, they are able to develop a spiritual relationship with God that becomes stronger and deeper as they experience more in life.
3. Intellectual growth – the mind gets to keep information and gather knowledge and develop the ability to understand and reason.
4. Emotional growth – a person learns to control his/her feelings, such as anger, sadness and joy and to think about the feelings of other people.

Emotions are strong feelings that people show.

Ways in which people develop

• Developing may be described as moving from one level to another in a positive way. We develop by being with people and this happens through interaction with people, the environment and God.

Being with other people

When children are young, they believe that their needs and wants are the most important in the world.

• As they develop and mature, they start to understand that other people’s needs and wants are important too.
• Children need to interact with other people and the world around them in order to learn these things.
• Babies and young children are used to receiving food from others.
• Babies also give joy and happiness to their mothers.
• Parents, relatives, and teachers provide them with food, shelter, clothing, discipline, and knowledge.
• As children mature into adults they begin to give back to their caregivers and they change into someone who contributes as well as receives.
• We learn to share things such as ideas, love, food and knowledge as we interact.

Developing with the environment

• The earth or the world consists of a variety of life. God created all sorts of things and finally made man the head of these things.
• Human beings do interact with plants, animals, stones and one has to note what a plant shares with animals and shares with human beings as they grow.
• Human being is superior to the other three things because a human being can think, is able to choose, know, and love God.
• In Psalm 8, God places humans above all other creatures and appoints the rulers of these other things for the benefit of mankind.
• Therefore, to misuse them is wrong for nature always keeps a balance
• g. over-grazing and over-cultivating the field makes the soil poor and less fertile.
• Water, trees, minerals and soil are the most familiar resources for the majority of people.
• Using resources for our benefits but at the same time not using them in such a way those future generations find nothing for them to use.

Developing with God

• Our relationship with God is a relationship that is simple when we are young, but like all relationships, it deepens as we mature.
• Being with God is a choice that we make along with other choices that are available to us as we get older.
• Religions look at the attributes of God, e.g. God is present everywhere; he is all-powerful, also all-knowing and he has many more qualities in addition to the above that make people depend on him.
• A Muslim would answer questions concerning God by using the Quran; A Hindu would also answer questions about God by explaining the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads.
• A Christian looks up to God as his father. He looks up to him for help in his needs for production, for love, for forgiveness and for deliverance from evil.
• Augustine of Hippo, an African Christian gave a prayer “you have made us for yourself, O God and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you!”
• “I am the path, the comforter, the creator, the witness, the resting place, the hiding place, the friend of all” (the Bhagavad Gita).
• “Praise be to God the Lord of the worlds, the one who has mercy, the one who has pity, the ruler of the day of judgment” (Quran).
• God is the creator of both living and non-living things.
• Non-living things include mountains, rivers and deserts.
• While living things include plants, animals and human beings.
• Human beings undergo stages of growth that plants and animals do not.

The differences among plants, animals and human beings are shown below.

Names, proverbs and prayers that describe God

Ideas about God and his relationship with people are expressed through the names that people use for God. They are also expressed through proverbs, stories and prayers.

Proverbs about God in Zambian Tradition

• Bemba: Lesa talombwa nama alombwa mweo (From God you do not ask for meat, but life, one should approach God for every important thing).
• Silozi: Nyambe mung’a bupilo. (God is the master of life)
• Lunda: Nzambi chinyawezi (God the only one)
• Chinyanja: ndife anainu Cauta mutipatse nyama (We are your children, O God give us meat).
• Kikaonde: Shakapanga (maker of all things)
• Chitonga: Leza ngu tateesu, takwe umwiinda Leza pe. (God is our Father; there is no one else to compare with him).
• Chitonga: Haabusiwa ngu pa mvula (God is the one who gives rain).

Growing up in the four major religions in Zambia

• Growing up in a religion means that you are taught the lessons and beliefs of that religion from when you are a young child.
• Growing up in the Christian faith Proverbs 22:6

“Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Christian parents have various responsibilities towards their children. Below are some of them.

• Showing by the way they live and how they value God’s teachings.
• Teaching their children to put God first.
• Teaching their children that once they give their lives to Jesus, they will have a place in Heaven.

Growing up in the Hindu faith

The following are some of the responsibilities Hindu parents have toward their children.

• They should teach their children to believe in God as creator of the world and protector of the family.
• They should teach their children that they have a soul to link them to God.
• They should teach the children to do well, whatever good they do in life will return to them in what is called Karma.

Growing up in the Muslim faith

In the Quran, Muslim parents are told that they are accountable for the way their children grow up in Islam.

• Their children should be given a good name that reflects Islamic traditions.
• Children in the family should be treated fairly.
• Children should be taught to recite the Quran and understand how its teachings can help them solve everyday problems.

Growing up in Zambian traditional religion

• In Zambian traditional religion, people look at God as the Supreme Being. They do not interact with God directly but use ancestors to speak for them.
• Young people are taught using songs, stories, proverbs and traditions and other ways. Proverbs are teachings that help young people to grow up into respectful individuals in the community.
• Growing up in Zambian traditional society means having ideas about God and respecting everything that has to do with God.
• Followers of the Zambian tradition will try to keep their ancestors happy by making sacrifices.