Introducing your child to the concept and the reality of God – Part III

We have been talking here at length about introducing children to the idea of God. In our last post we said…”Let’s say that your daughter has heard at her friend’s house that God punishes us if we don’t do what He wants us to do. She’s heard that if we are not careful we could wind up going to “hell.” Now what do you say? “Sweetheart, that’s not true.” OR…“I certainly hope that’s not true. Let’s cross our fingers.”

Yes…these questions about how to proceed are not small questions. So let’s back up right here and start at the beginning. The first thing you need to do as you explore how to introduce your child to the concept and the reality of God is to get clear about what YOU think about the concept and reality of God.

So let’s take a little survey of your own thoughts and ideas…

Let’s find out what you think about God

Here is a little Multiple Choice quiz for you. Complete the following statements. You may select one or more than one answer from the choices given…or offer you own answer.

1. The existence of God is:
A. Pure myth and fiction and untrue
B. Something I’m not sure about
C. Not doubted by me for a moment

==========================================================PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU CHOSE “A” OR “B” ABOVE THERE IS NO POINT IN YOUR FINISHING THE READING OF THIS ENTRY. IT HAS NOT BEEN PREPARED FOR PARENTS WHO DO NOT BELIEVE IN GOD AND ARE SIMPLY LOOKING FOR STRATEGIES TO USE WHEN ASKED ABOUT THE SUBJECT BY THEIR CHILDREN.

THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN PREPARED FOR PARENTS WHO HAVE READ CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD, WHO AGREE IN THE MAIN WITH ITS CONTENTS, AND WHO WISH TO SHARE ITS MESSAGE WITH THEIR CHILDREN.

(As parents who have read these books know, CWG does not indicate that there is only one way to think about God, nor that its own message is the inviolable truth about God. Quite to the contrary, the most striking point made in the dialogue is that no outside authority should ever replace one’s own inner experience regarding who and what God is, what God wants, and God’s role (if any) in our lives. However, a belief in some kind of God or Divine Essence or Universal Energy would be required for the rest of this post to make sense.)  ==========================================================
2. My description of God is:
A. A big man in the sky, sitting on a throne
B. A Super Version of a human, with the ability to be angered, saddened, upset, frustrated or disappointed just like humans, and the intention to punish any human being who disobeys Him
C. A Super Being who looks like a human male, but who is kind, caring, compassionate, forgiving, and loving, and who would never hurt or harm anybody, much less punish them for their sins
D. A Super Being who looks like a human female, but who is kind, caring, compassionate, forgiving, and loving, and who would never hurt or harm anybody, much less punish them for their sins
E. A Super Being who has no gender, but who is kind, caring, compassionate, forgiving, and loving, and who would never hurt or harm anybody, much less punish them for their sins
F. A Super Being who looks nothing like a human, but who has all of the other qualities of C, D, and E above.
G. Not a Super Being at all, in the human sense, but rather, an Essence or an Energy that can assume any shape or form It desires, or no particular form at all.
H. An Essence or Energy that exists in Absolute Wholeness (that is, nothing in existence is separate from It, or is “other than” It), and that embodies Unconditional Love, Supreme Intelligence, Sublime Awareness, Endless Wisdom, and Unlimited Power.
I. None of the above, but my own answer, which is: (type your answer below)
J. None of the above; I do not know and wouldn’t hazard a guess

3. God’s relationship to Life is:
A. God created life as we know it, but exists apart and separate from it and has no control over it now that it has been created.
B. God created life as we know it, exists apart and separate from it, and has total control over it now that it has been created.
C. God created life as we know it, but exists apart and separate from it and exerts control over it when certain people ask God to, in a certain way.
D. God created life as we know it, but exists apart and separate from it and has the ability to exert complete control over it now that it has been created, but nevertheless chooses not to intervene in daily life, leaving humans to their own devices.
E. God created life as we know it, but exists apart and separate from it and has the ability to exert complete control over it now that it has been created, but nevertheless chooses not to intervene directly in daily life, preferring to give humans the power to co-create their outcomes with their fellow humans, using the power that God gave them.
F. God created life as we know it, exists in unity with and as part of all that lives, and has the ability to exert complete control over life now that it has been created, yet nevertheless chooses not to intervene directly in daily life, preferring to give humans the ability to co-create their outcomes with their fellow humans, using the power that God gives them.
G. None of the above, but my own answer, which is: (type your answer below)
H. None of the above; I do not know and wouldn’t hazard a guess

4. God’s purpose in creating life is:
A. To give God something to do
B. To put in place a system of Justice and Fairness in the Universe, so that all souls which separated themselves from God would have a chance to come back to God and live with God forever if they wanted to
C. To experience Itself in every possible way, and thus to Know Itself in Its Own Experience, through the expression of Its Essence and Its Energy in every physical form
D. None of the above, but my own answer, which is: (type your answer below)
E. None of the above; I do not know and wouldn’t hazard a guess

5. God’s function in life is:
A. To sit around and watch things that are going on, but do nothing
B. To sit around and watch things that are going on, and give us help when we need it.
C. To answer our prayers
D. To watch us closely and pass judgment on us when we die, deciding whether we go to Heaven or to Hell based on how we have lived our lives
E. To create
F. To express Divinity in all its aspects through the process we call Life, using as its tools of expression All Physical Things
G. To make Its Essence and Its Energy available to us to use whenever, wherever, and however we wish
H. None of the above, but my own answer, which is: (type your answer below)
I. None of the above; I do not know and wouldn’t hazard a guess

6. God’s relationship to us is:
A. A mystery
B. God is our Father, who loves us and is there is help us in every difficulty
C. God is our Creator, who made us in His image and likeness
D. God is with us always, even unto the end of time
E. God is the Source of our creative power, our strength, our wisdom, and our love
F. God is One with us, united with us, the same as us, identical to us, not separate in any way from us, who lives in us, as us, through us; God is US, and we are God, in individualized expression
G. None of the above, but my own answer, which is: (type your answer below)
H. None of the above; I do not know and wouldn’t hazard a guess

7. What God wants and requires of us is:
A. To obey His commandments, abide by His laws, do His Will, behold His righteousness, fear His judgment, pay homage to His divinity and praise His glory forever and ever
B. To do our best in every situation, be kind to others, and not hurt anybody on purpose
C. Nothing at all
D. None of the above, but my own answer, which is: (type your answer below)
E. None of the above; I do not know and wouldn’t hazard a guess

8. The way to interact with God is:
A. With fear and trepidation
B. With faith and gratitude
C. As you would with a kind and gentle father
D. As you would with a just and powerful monarch
E. As you would with your best friend
F. As you would with someone you fear
G. As you would with someone you love
H. As you would with someone you need
I.  As you would with someone you do not need
J. As you would with someone who you know is always there
K. As you would with someone who you hope is there
L. None of the above, but my own answer, which is: (type your answer below)
M. None of the above; I do not know and wouldn’t hazard a guess

9. Life Itself is:
A. Something that we are all living, through no choice of our own, but getting through as best as can
B. A time of travail; a trial and a test, which has no apparent purpose or outcome.
C. A time of travail; a trial and a test, which, if we pass, allows us to return to God, and if we fail, sends us to the everlasting fires of hell
D. A school, with lessons to learn and a test at the end, which, if we pass, allows us to return to God, and if we fail, sends us to the everlasting fires of hell
E. A school, with lessons to learn, but no pass/fail test at the end; simply a process of learning and growth
F. Not a school, but a place and a way in which we are invited to demonstrate what we already know and completely understand regarding who we are, and now simply wish to express and experience
G. A process by which a biological creature moves from birth to death, having no reality of itself before birth or after death; the simple outcome of a chemical process involving the fundamental essence and energy of life, playing itself out with neither purpose nor design, reason nor function, objective nor outcome other than the movement through the Cycle of Life Itself in its many physical forms.
H. A journey of the soul from birth to death, with reason, purpose, and function
I. A process by which God expresses and experiences Its Divinity
J. None of the above, but my own answer, which is: (type your answer below)
K. None of the above; I do not know and wouldn’t hazard a guess

10. The purpose of Life is:
A. It has no purpose. It just is.
B. If it has a purpose, it is something none of us know; it is beyond our ability to determine.
C. Evolution; the evolution of Life Itself through the ever-expanding expression and manifestation of its many forms
D. The evolution of the soul, through the ever-expanding expression and manifestation of its many aspects
E. To announce and declare, express and fulfill, know and experience Who You Really Are
F. To recreate yourself anew, in each golden moment of Now, in the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever you held about Who You Are
G. To provide human beings with a vehicle and a means by which they might find salvation and return to God in heaven, whence they came
H. To provide God with a vehicle and a means by which It might know Itself experientially, and not simply conceptually
I. None of the above, but my own answer, which is: (type your answer below)
J. None of the above; I do not know and wouldn’t hazard a guess

11. Who and what I am is:
A. God’s creation
B. A biological entity; a physical life form, not unlike other life forms on the earth, except in complexity
C. A spiritual being having a physical body and a mind
D. A child of God
E. A part of God
F. A unique and unduplicated expression of God
G. An individualization of God
H. Divinity Itself in physical form
I. None of the above, but my own answer, which is: (type your answer below)
J. None of the above; I do not know and wouldn’t hazard a guess

These are the questions faced by parents every day—and there will be more. Life will place more questions before you if you are thinking about life’s greater aspects in any way at all. And your children will certainly place these and other questions before you, if only because of what they are hearing out there in the larger world around them, as mentioned before.

So it is important that you come to your own conclusions and awareness about God, even if these change across the time span of your child’s upbringing. Indeed, especially if they do.

And we will continue this series of articles in our next entry here. Do join us.