Hazel (age 3): "Grandma, if you eat purple fruit you DIE!"
Me (age 59): "Who told you that?!?"
Audrey (age 4): "Grandma, it's the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil!" (Oh yes she did say all of that.)
Hazel also announced that God is naughty for killing the Egyptians with plagues. AND she chases her sister around saying she's going to kill her because she just learned about Cain killing Abel. And try explaining this...
Don't get me wrong. I want my grandchildren to learn about God and the Bible, but I think some of these stories need to wait until they're able to understand some of our explanations. I was frankly at a loss as to how to clarify things to their little minds. They catch the DIE part and the KILLING parts, but don't understand the WHY parts. Sheesh. We, as adults, haven't got it all figured out and maybe won't until we ask God face-to-face in heaven. So, just wondering what sort of resources you all use for your littles.
Any thoughts? (I never should have let them watch The Prince of Egypt!)
Shalom.
I do wonder where she got the purple fruit part!! I agree that many parts of OT stories can be glossed over when telling these stories to the younger ones. I did find that my sons loved the gory parts. The story of David and Goliath was reenacted many many times complete with the "cutting off his head" part.( Until then I actually thought the stones had done the job. )
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure where the purple fruit came from. I don't think any particular kind of fruit is specified in the Bible, lol.
DeleteMaybe it's the fairytale of "Schneewittchen": She ate the red part of an poisoned apple and fell into a big sleep like dead...
ReplyDeleteDear Lisa, this is a very interesting talk with your grand-daughters. It's good to speak with these girls about their questions.And when they have special complicated questions: the answer you wrote so wonderful in your text:
"We, as adults, haven't got it all figured out and maybe won't until we ask God face-to-face in heaven."
And then tell them about an "easier" story....
Or just some wonderful sentences....
Tell them how to read bible in the right way. Try to find a good illustrated children-bible....
Thank you, Dori! They have several children's Bibles, which are pretty good, but some of this they pick up from Sunday School or animated Bible stories. It takes a lot of vigilance to correct misconceptions. :)
DeleteI think it's precisely because they are BIBLE stories that we need to wait until their minds can understand the WHY parts :) Stories like Abraham's sacrifice of his son are deeply theological and are only correctly understood when seen as a type of Christ's death. Until they can understand that typology, it's hard for children to grasp why God would do the things He did. That's why a good, deep education is important for children. Education (esp. of literature) is crucial to a life-long study of Scripture.
ReplyDelete