Denise Lee Porter

God & Religion

I was cruising Mamapedia looking for a topic for my next post and I found this very interesting question about talking to kids about religion. It got me to wondering just how did I learn about God/religion and what did I pass on to my kids?

My Mother raised me on a bedtime prayer that I naturally said with my kids at bedtime, and they say with their kids at bedtime:

“Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my Soul to keep,

If I should die before I wake,

I pray the Lord my Soul to take”

Followed by :

“In my little bed I lie, Heavenly Father hear my cry, God protect me through this night and keep me safe til morning light”

No, I don’t know why we say two prayers in a row, it’s just what we do.  And yes on careful reflection the first one does seem morbid and my sons did comment on it when they were small.

I sent my oldest two kids to Sunday school when they were younger, because I remembered Sunday School as a pretty good time, and I  wanted them to have that same great experience.

But I pretty much lost interest in church after age 16 or so and my kids didn’t even make it that far. My 15 year old has never attended church regularly, not even Sunday School.  So I asked him what he thought about God and religion, he said “Well I’m not an atheist am I?”.

I have a very interesting situation with my Grandson, his mother and grandmother are Jehovahs Witnesses and we are not.  This makes for very deep conversations about “Jehovah God” .  My grandson seems to think that “Jehovah God” is a pretty mean guy. I try to soften that message a little bit for him but  I do not try to unteach what he learns at Kingdom Hall. We do celebrate Christmas and his birthday when he’s with us though.

I read a study that said that kids who were raised in homes at  either of the extremes of religion (too much or none at all) are the most likely to end up in cults or what I like to call “extreme church”.  The person who asked the question on MamaSource alluded to this when she said: ” I had a very strange, fundamentalist upbringing and do not practice any religion. ”

Children being the curious people that they are, will definitely ask questions about God and about religion; just tell them what you know. If you don’t know enough to answer the question, research it together. But don’t lie to them, don’t be judgemental,  don’t avoid their questions altogether,  and definitely don’t  give such negative or angry feedback that they don’t dare ask again. After all the important thing is for our children to always feel that they can talk to us about anything under the sun.