What kids are thinking about…
As my first post I wanted to share with parents/guardians what questions your kids are asking and what kind of things are on their minds!
We had prayer stations at Tidal Wave a couple of weeks ago and kids wrote prayers such as:
“I am so happy that when I prayed for the girl at school to stop bullying people and she did”
“Thank you for people so that they could make the stuff I like so much”
“Why does there have to be war and hurting people?”
In Promiseland we have a “BIG questions” box where kids have been encouraged to ask any questions. I encourage you to comment if you have helpful answers to these questions! Some are really stumping us because they are sometimes complex and difficult to explain to an 8 year old! We will be ‘answering’ these questions on March 1.
Elementary Kids questions:
1. Is there a pet heaven?
2. How many kinds of churches are there? I only know three, catholic, mennonite & baptist.
3. How big is heaven?
4. Is the name God different in different languages?
5. Do you ever feel like God doesn’t love you?
6. How does God make & create Promiseland games? It would be hard.
7.How many times a day do people sin?
8. Is heaven outside of space?
9. Jesus says to love your enemies. Does Jesus love the devil?
10. How does God make each snow flake different?
These are not all the questions! Kids just kept writing & writing! They want to talk about it, they have questions and as parents/teachers/guardians, it’s okay if we don’t have the answers but it is important to engage your kids in these kind of conversations. Encourage questioning about God and their faith because when is it bad to dwell on God and who he is?
Jessica
How does God make and create Promiseland Games? Thank is hard isn’t it. I love the questions these kids are asking. Some of them I’m not sure I’d even heard before, even after working in youth ministry!
To shortly answer one question and to try and start some dialogue. I think that Jesus loves the devil and wishes that he was still up in heaven with the angels, and that because God is so incredibly Holy, Righteous, and Good that he cannot have the devil in His presence, but that he still loves him.
That’s my short answer, anyone else have thoughts?
Those are some HUGE questions!
I have actually thought recently about whether Jesus loves the Devil and I think He does. It was in the context of the question: If God knows everything and is all powerful, then why was the devil allowed to ‘fall’? The only good answer that I have is that God is love and, if you use the definition of love from 1 Corinthians 13, love always hopes. It must follow then, that even though God knew Satan would deny Him and want his own power, He still hoped Satan would change his mind and come back to Him. Also, if God loves people who are under Satan’s influence, is He not also capable of loving the Devil himself? Don’t know how you might tell that to an 8 year old, but those are my thought!
I’ve also often wondered if heaven is outside of space. The Bible doesn’t say exactly where it is, so we’re kind of left to our imagination for now. I’d like to think that it’s bigger than space – possibly including it or parts of it or another dimension of it or possibly not….