He does not want to die and wants to stay alive. We have been going through the usual round of questions but I feel that the answers that I am giving him is insufficient because he asks the same questions over and over again. Please someone help as he is very concerned and so am I. i don't know what to tell him anymore.
2006-07-11 03:26:26 · 18 answers · asked by donnalooksout 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The question you have to answer is why he "doesn't want to die". The statement seems self-evident to most people -- "I don't want to die" -- but it implies that this life is all there is.
If you believe that, and have taught that to your child, then you have to find a way to make him emotionally prepared for the fact that he's going to die and that's that. When I was an atheist, I was resigned to the fact that I would die one day but that it didn;t matter as long as I enjoyed and was useful (whatever that meant) today.
I can't speak to how other religions deal with your question, but I can speak to how Christ teaches us to see and to consider death.
First, it is a fact that all men die. There's no escaping it. All men die because all men are sinners and are sinful. We die.
But death is not an end: death places us in the presence of the Lord in an immediate way. When we are in God's presence, He will see us one of two ways: either He will see us as sinners who would not repent and did not seek Him as a savior from our own faults and weakenesses, or He will see us through His Son, who is the only savior of men.
In the Christian view, Christ died for our sins in accordance with Scripture. That means that God spent all of time encouraging us and promising us a savior throigh His prophets, and then when the time was right Jesus came from the Father to do saving work by dying on the Cross. Christ died for our sins not by accident or by misfortune, but because God had a plan which saves men from sin.
But that's not the end of the story: Christ was buried and then was raised from the dead /in accordance with the Scripture./ We don't have to trust someone else's interpretation of Christ's death for assurance that it pays for sins: His resurrection is God's explicit announcement to the world that the death of Jesus is a sacrifice He accepts as perfect and sufficient for sin.
If you are a Christian, you owe it to your son to tell him that Christ died for our sins because that was God's plan for men in order to save them, and that Christ's resurrection gives us certain hope that when we die we will not face oblivion or judgment but eternal love and fellowship with God.
2006-07-11 03:43:53 · answer #1 · answered by Frank Turk 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I had to explain this to my six-year-old granddaughter a couple years back, too. As a Humanist, I don't believe in an afterlife, and I wanted to tell her the truth, but I have to admit that it was tempting to fall back on the soothing fantasy of a beautiful heaven where all good boys and girls go, that age-old myth used to take the sting out of death. I'm glad now that I resisted. Instead, I told her about mayflies and butterflies and how short their lifespans are compared to our own. I told her how long the redwoods of California live, and some species of sea turtle. I told her about the oldest living human being and how we must keep ourselves healthy and make the best use of what time we have.
I changed her focus onto LIFE and all the exciting possibilities it encompasses.
2006-07-11 10:36:18 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Did someone in your circle of family/friend's "pass" recently? Has he been watching "crap" on TV? He's scared because somewhere along the line, something or someone put this idea in his innocent, little head; I would take him to a beautiful House of Worship, and a cemetery( a nice one!), and explain that from the moment we're born, we all start to become older, and yes, this is what happens; there are books out there (good story books about this), that may help; if this fails, take him to a therapist!
2006-07-11 10:35:29 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not an expert, but I'd like to take a stab it this one. I would tell him that death is part of nature, and eventually we all die. We're lucky if we live to a ripe old age. Well, luck and being careful, which to me is an important point to bring home to the kids. Not to make them be fearful all the time, but to be careful.
2006-07-11 10:30:51 · answer #4 · answered by merlin_steele 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Great question. I would tell him that death is not the end but rather a relocation. For a six year old, this may be tough to explain, so compare it to moving to a better neighborhood. You are still you, but where you live is much better.
2006-07-11 10:28:36 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
One thing I've told my kids is simply that they go to be with God, in a place where nothing can hurt them or make them sad. Another is that even though the earth is "broken" (because of disease, suffering, and human evil), God is working to fix it, and that when it's all fixed, everyone who ever died will return to life, and the earth will be paradise. Those are naive, theologically; I wouldn't explain things to an adult in that way -- but they're true, essentially, and they seem to work for my kids (who are five and eight).
2006-07-11 10:36:21 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
what kind of questions?
if i were you i would tell him death is not the concern of 6yer olds..its the concerns of adults..so as a 6yer old he sld be more concerned about growing up..playing..making friends..etc..wat a 6yer old is suppsoed to do
tell him that death is nothing to fear because you are there to protect him from it
i tink it is not easy for 6yerolds to grasp such an event..so its best not to go too much into detail..get his mind off it..
then again im not a psychologist..if he is getting really morbid about it i guess it is better to consult a psycologist to find out how to handle it appropriately or to get him to meet the psychologist..
2006-07-11 10:33:29 · answer #7 · answered by acnemycin 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He is going to learn someday, so you might as well just explain it now. You need to give him examples on why people die and what happens. Or if you don't feel like doing that, pretend you don't hear him when he asks you, eventually he'll forget about it.
2006-07-11 10:31:03 · answer #8 · answered by hockeyhunny2 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
explain the truth to him
what the truth is, is what you know for sure, and don't try to speculate on things
for instance, you know he WILL die one day but it more than likely won't be for a very long time, tell him that no one really knows what happens after death but what you believe is (whatever your religon or spiritual views are)
kids are capable of understanding a lot more than we give them credit for
be honest with him
2006-07-11 10:31:13 · answer #9 · answered by whoisgod71 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Let him know that everything that lives eventually dies, but most people live a long time, and he doesn't have to worry about you or him dying until you're very old. The key, I think, is to be truthful to him.
2006-07-11 10:30:52 · answer #10 · answered by hirsbrun_2000 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋