Talking with kids about serious things

 

Simple talk about death

    I started this blog because a friend of mine asked me to help her in telling her 5-year-old daughter about her uncle's death. It was necessary to reject the great theological constructions and simply convey to the child information about such an important stage of life that awaits all of us.

   I can describe  Death like a dream: at one moment I am alive, talking, thinking, feeling something. In the next moment I close my eyes and flie in another world just as in my dreams. My body sleeps here, with my family, they may see it. My soul passes into another world.

There I continue to think, feel, speak, know what hunger and thirst are, can be happy and sad. There I am free from everything that was difficult here: from diseases, from natural phenomena such as cold, from poverty. There my soul sees God, Who created me.

God once gave me life, body, parents, talents and character traits, He has gave me everything what I need to seek Him and to love Him. Therefore, God will show to my soul all my life, all that I has done good, but also bad. At that time there will be a lot of crying and sadness, because we all make a lot of mistakes and errors.

God is kind and loving Father, He tries to understand why my soul did so and whether I tried to correct myself. If my soul was not proud, that is, one who thinks only of himself and does not care about his loved ones; if I did not seek only money and helped the poor; if I was not a person who treated God and the church badly during my life, then God look at my Faith. Faith is your hopes, trust, beliefs and actions that are caused by your beliefs. God knows that I am not perfect and He knows all my mistakes. God has paid for all mistakes in advance. The Son of God, whose name is Jesus, once paid a very high price for every sin, all our errors and bad actions - with his own life. People all make mistakes and make bad deeds, think evil thoughts and Bible calls that Sins. God knows this, so he decided long time ago that He would pay for our sins.

If my soul loved God, believed in Jesus' love and care, if I was grateful for Jesus' work (because He did so much for us - He died!); If I  loved God's laws, prayed to and trusted God, my soul will come to Him without any fear. I will rejoice with God and wait for my loved ones to come to God as well and nothing will separate us anymore.

Someday everyone dies. Someone lives a long life, up to a hundred years! Someone dies fast - it is God who measures how long to live. He Himself knows how long it takes for a person to seek Him and love Him. God said that He gives a long life as a gift to those people who respect their parents - love them, speak respectfully to them and think well of them, help them when needed. God promises a long life to those who also seek and find wisdom, love God's laws, and keep them. God also gives longevity to those who are attentive to their words, do not insult people with words. 

Tell me what do you think about death? What did your parents tell you about death of your relatives? And how do you explain to your kids about death??