The most radical gift you can give a child is not religion. It is the power to think.
Across history, the societies that thrived were not those that prayed the loudest but those that trained their young to question, reason, and innovate. Yet in too many homes today, children are burdened with the role of prayer warriors before they are even given the tools to think.
I once watched a boy, no older than seven, kneel with his classmates during a school assembly. They were told to pray for success in their exams. When the prayers ended, he raised his hand shyly and asked, but what if I don’t read? The room went silent. His question was innocent, yet it exposed the heart of a generational problem. We are teaching children to expect miracles before they learn effort, to kneel before they learn to stand. Miracles don’t build bridges, hard work does. Do not raise children who wait for breakthroughs raise children who create them.
This is not an argument against faith. It is an argument against outsourcing a child’s future to ritual while neglecting reason. When children are taught to rely on prayer as the ultimate solution to every challenge before they even understand how the world works we risk raising generations that confuse submission with resilience and dogma with discovery.
In Tiv traditional belief in central Nigeria, teaching a child Tsav, the application of mystical powers was considered an abuse of innocence. The elders, wise in their understanding of balance, would never impose that burden on a child. They used their craft to shield their young, not to recruit them into spiritual warfare. Our ancestors were wise people. It was only in adulthood, after a person had lived, learned, and chosen their own path, that such matters could even be considered. This wisdom stands in sharp contrast to today’s obsession with turning children into miniature prophets and priests before they have even learned to use their own minds.
The evidence is sobering. A UNESCO global education report found that countries emphasizing critical thinking, problem-solving, and inquiry-based learning produce students with far higher creativity and innovation scores than those relying heavily on religious instruction. In a century defined by artificial intelligence, climate crises, and geopolitical upheavals, no amount of prayer will code a program, cure a disease, or negotiate peace. Folded hands cannot replace trained minds. A nation of prayer warriors cannot compete with a nation of problem-solvers.
Parents say they want their children to succeed. But true success is not measured by the volume of their prayers. It is measured by their ability to solve problems, think critically, and navigate complexity. Instead of teaching them to wait for miracles, teach them the dignity of hard work. Prayer may give comfort, but it does not replace the raw intellectual tools required to build bridges, write code, invent vaccines, or grow food on barren soil. Childhood is not a battlefield, it is a laboratory for curiosity. To force a child into prayer is to rob them of the most sacred gift, the freedom to wonder.
So if you believe in prayer, pray for your children, not through them. Pray that they grow up with sharp minds and open eyes. Pray that they find wisdom, courage, and clarity. But do not shackle their childhoods with the pressure of spiritual responsibilities they cannot yet comprehend. Let them learn science before theology, reason before ritual, questioning before kneeling.
Because a child taught to think becomes an adult who can choose. They may choose prayer, or they may choose philosophy, or they may choose both. But the choice will be theirs, and that is the true mark of freedom. Faith should be chosen, not imposed. A child who is taught to think will one day choose whether to pray but a child taught only to pray may never learn how to think.
This is not an attack on faith but a defense of childhood, a reminder that imagination is sacred and curiosity divine. If we truly want to prepare our children for the storms of the present and the uncertainties of the future, we must teach them how to build lifeboats, not just how to close their eyes and hope for rescue. The storms of tomorrow will not yield to chants. They will yield to minds that know how to build lifeboats.
The future will not be inherited by those who pray the most, but by those who think the deepest. The world does not need more prayer warriors. The world needs children who grow up unafraid to think, to question, to work hard, to innovate, and to lead.
And if that is not holy, then what is?
The storms of tomorrow will not yield to chants they will yield to minds that know how to build lifeboats.
We risk raising generations that confuse submission with resilience.
The most radical gift you can give a child is not religion. It is the power to think.
Do not raise children who wait for breakthroughs raise children who create them.
The post Stop turning children into prayer warriors, by Stephanie Shaakaa appeared first on Vanguard News.
