Try to answer as you would to a small child’s questions, “What is God? Where is God? What does God do? How do I know God answers my prayers? What does God look like?" What is God? answer #1: Over a very long time peoples’ ideas about God have changed. Today most people believe God is all around us, and is the creator of everything. He started the world and is watching how it runs. Jesus tells us in (John 4: 24) that " God is a Spirit." Great, Dad, what is a spirit? My dictionary lists fourteen meanings for spirit, some have two, or more parts. Good luck. KISS. What is God? answer #2: He is spiritual, invisible, unknowable, impersonal, and not a man or a woman. We don’t know for sure. What does God do? answer: God is who runs things. We think He started the world and is watching how it goes. We don’t know for sure. Where is God? answer: All around us watching over us. Later in (John 5:37), Jesus says,". . . Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form." We don’t know for sure. How do I know God answers my prayers? Wishy-washy answers: God is hard to get to know. He is kind of remote with all He has to do. The reasons He has things happen the way they do is hard to understand. We often don't get what we think we should have. God decided that it wasn't good for us. Better answers: We don’t know for sure. God doesn't answer our prayers. We don't know. It is easy to forget that our prayers are really for us to talk straight to our own hearts. Parents Take Note: You lost your kids with the second phrase. This where the lies begin. Don't lie to your children. KISS Children will secretly test you and God. They will pray for something which you deny to them, like candy. When it doesn't appear, your credibility, and God's, hits zero if you have lied. The correct answer, the straight forward answer, is: God doesn't answer our prayers. If you can get past that, the rest of parenting your child about religion is easier. If your kids are like my kids, you know that the answers above will only generate a lot more questions, and that you had better come up with easier, simpler words to help them understand. God is kind of remote and hard to understand. He is spiritual, invisible, unknowable, and impersonal. People a long time ago tried to stretch their imaginations. They couldn't stretch much. As a result, as a default option, they created God in their own image. They did this simply because God, as a human being, was easier to understand. We don't know what God looks like. P.S.: Children today do understand what a default option is. Computer games. Human beings, being the intensely social creatures that we are, have been practicing understanding of other humans for a very long time. Xenophanes, and perhaps others, in Greece, postulated this concept five hundred years before the common era as we date time, 500 B. C. Nearly all the early Greek Gods were described as human, or partly human in nature. As you can see from the date above, humans have been chewing on this piece of gristle for a very long time. Ever since human beings became self aware there has been one question. Perhaps that was one and a half million years ago, or more. The overwhelming question has been, “When and if I die, what happens to me?” Next question. “Is there life after death?” These definitely are not new questions. In the past, many cultures have come to the conclusion, No. Others say, "Yes". Still others say, "Yes, maybe". We don't know is still a good answer. Children still ask these questions. Answer them thusly. "I believe, we are all a part of God. When we die, we go back to God." The very best you can do as a parent is to tell your children the truth, and tell them what you believe. Remember to follow the KISS rule: Keep It Simple Stupid. That is enough until they turn sixteen.
(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, and the priesthood. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will interest everyone. This article may be freely reprinted so long as all copyright attributions, and the full content of this resource box are included. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com
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