What would you say?

Question

Non-believers...set aside your incredible gift for asking questions often laced with sarcasm which I have to admit sometimes makes even me smile and laugh, for a moment, and answer this question. If you were sitting beside your child knowing that the doctors have only given her moments to live, what would you say when she asked, "Daddy/Mommy, I'm scared to leave you. I love you so much. What will happen to me when I die?"
Even in your disbelief could you be so sure of your decision to deny Christ that you would also deny hers by telling her there is nothing waiting for her after death? (please don't be unkind...my friend is facing this very question as you read this)

Answer 1

I think I'd avoid telling her about all the people who believe she's headed for eternal hellfire unless she accepts their brand of philosophy. I'd tell her she's headed for total peace...a place of no pain.

Answer 2

Personally, I do believe in an afterlife that simply has nothing to do with any supreme being. So I would explain what I feel happens next.

However, most likely I would just lie if necessary and tell the child that they will go on to a very nice place and I will see them again when my time to move on has come.

You don't have to say anything about God or Allah or the Tooth Fairy. Just tell him or her that you move on to the next life and they will see you again.

Answer 3

I would not mention Christ,but would talk about the family she will see on the other side waiting to hug her .That you would see her soonThat God would comfort her and keep her safe and it is a wonderful place with lots of love and neat things to see and do.I am not anti-Christ I just am a spiritual person that looks for the devine within,not in organised religion.I think Jesus was a great man,but just that.only.It does not make me a sinner or evil,I just believe differently than you.I still believe in God and that is whats important to me.I still believe in loveing my fellow man and selfless acts of kindness.I still would give the shirt off my back for others

Answer 4

I never lie to my son, we talked about death many times, I always told him the truth:

'When we die, we die. There's only one way for us to keep living: in the words, in the hearts and in the thoughts of those who loved us we'll always live. Remembrance is the only thing that make's an individual's life eternal. So, be a good human being, give as much love and help as you can to the others, and in their hearts and words you'll always live.'

My mom passed away when I was 8 months pregnant, and couldn't see my son. My son, when he was 5, asked me if I missed her and I told him that she was still alive inside my heart because she was living in me. He never met her yet he knows her better than many people who actually met her! He often talks about her, and his children will talk about her too, and so on, so that she'll always live as well as each of us will, in the memories and hearts of the ones we loved.

There's nothing after death, just the memories we leave in the hearts of the ones we loved, and that's our only key to eternity. Peace.

Answer 5

I could just as easily answer, "Why lie to your child?" But instead...

Having been in this situation myself, and thankfully, having my child live rather than die, I've found that children are far more instructive to adults, rather than it being the other way around. Too often I've seen the child comfort the distraught parent when the child is close to death. Children's sense of what's going on and what's about to happen to them is far more complete and satisfying than any mythology we can offer them.

Answer 6

Yes, yes I would. My response would be,

"I will remember you and love you as long as I live. You are my child and no one, not even death, can take that away from us."

I would want my child to die warmed by the truth and by love, not given the false warmth of a lie.

Answer 7

I would not know what to tell my child....iw ould ask her what she believed and let her go with that....if my beliefs are right she will be reincarnated.....if the christain religion is right she is only a child too young to understand and children can not go to Hell....so therefore I would mutter a prayer for her and hold her hand....i would try my best to prove the doctors wrong....