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Question for those of you who are not Christian:

CleoKittyCleoKitty member
in Parenting

My 6 y/o asks about Jesus all the time and I try to answer his questions to the best of my ability.

He wants to know if Jesus was real, if he was nice to people, if he was a good guy, if he helped feed hungry people, etc. I explain to him that yes, Jesus was a real person who did nice things for other people. But, my answers are never enough and he pushes for more and more.

He wants me to help find him some books about Jesus and I have no objections to that at all. However, I'm just not sure how to present the story of the historical Jesus to him without confusing him with the theological stuff. 

Any ideas or suggestions? Resources? How would you approach this with your child? 

 

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Re: Question for those of you who are not Christian:

  • shouldbworkinshouldbworkin
    No idea.  My kids have no idea who Jesus is. 
    DS1 age 7, DD age 5 and DS2 born 4/3/12
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  • ZenyaZenya member
    Christopher is in a christian school and brings up jesus, too.  I hate it but I realize I did it to myself.  Anyway so far I just tell him that some people believe it and some people don't.  
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  • KoriBrettKoriBrett

    Sam has no idea who he was LOL  Ummmm I guess maybe in this case I'd find a UU church and see if anyone has recs??  What about the chick who married you guys ?  Hang at the library for a while & read up to find appropriate books for him?

    Also, whatever you end up doing, let me know 'cause Sam likely won't be far behind on this one.  

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  • DevonPowDevonPow member
    Our plan is to take him to church at that point (I am Agnostic, DH is Atheist - but we both agree that we want him to try out various churches/faiths and make up his own mind). Once he starts asking questions he can go to Temple with his BFF, go to a local Unitarian church with us, go to Mass with our aunt who was almost a nun, etc. He can ask all of them whatever questions he wants and then make up his mind. I am hoping he doesn't pick to follow in the footsteps of my Missionary Southern Baptist Uncle, but you never know :)
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  • CleoKittyCleoKitty member

    imageZenya:
    Anyway so far I just tell him that some people believe it and some people don't.  

    Today he yelled angrily at me, "I believe in everything that you and dad don't believe in! I believe in Jesus and the cross and in heaven!" 

    Welcome to living in the Bible belt, eh? 

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  • kellnbrikellnbri

    I don't have these, but I found them on Amazon.  Sorry I can't make them clicky

     https://www.amazon.com/Story-Jesus-Little-Golden-Book/dp/0375839410/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295636377&sr=1-2

     

     https://www.amazon.com/Story-Jesus-Patricia-Pingry/dp/0824955455/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295636377&sr=1-5

     

    We do have this one.  It has really simple stories that explain the basic meaning of the Bible stories.  It is a good place to start with the children.

     https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Bible-Timeless-Childrens-Stories/dp/0310709628/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295636598&sr=1-1

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  • JermysgirlJermysgirl member
    I have no idea what we'll do. I don't think we'll let her go to church without us, but if she wanted to go, I suppose we would take her and we'd deprogram her afterwards.
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  • juniper19juniper19 member
    Maybe find a children's book that talks about a bunch of different religions (I don't know if that exists).  I think it would be too tricky to expect a child to understand the difference between the historical Jesus and the theological Jesus.  But you can talk about how there are a lot of different religions and this is what each one is and some people have no religion at all.
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  • goodheartedmommygoodheartedmommy member
    imageCleoKitty:

    imageZenya:
    Anyway so far I just tell him that some people believe it and some people don't.  

    Today he yelled angrily at me, "I believe in everything that you and dad don't believe in! I believe in Jesus and the cross and in heaven!" 

    Welcome to living in the Bible belt, eh? 

    I think it's kind of like Santa...it's comfort for kids (and adults). I don't know what advice to give you as I'm Christian, but I think that's why kids are drawn to the concept of Jesus. 

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  • JOEBunnyJOEBunny member

    I tell my DD that Jesus is a man that some people believe was the child of God, born of Mary.  I tell her that many people pray to him, including her teachers (at religious school).  I don't care if she becomes a Christian, good for her.  I also teach her about mythology and get books out of the library about everything from Shintoism to the Amish.  Being educated never hurt anyone, except the oppressed. 

    We have the story of Jesus from little golden books.  It is pretty cute.  

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