Just wanted to put this poll up.. will respond with my answer later.. ds just woke up! :D

Dd was asking about it after Sun School and they were starting to learn about "the devil." So we told her a little more, not enough to scare her though.

OK obviously, I haven't taught my 7 month old anything about this LOL

But, wouldn't it be wise to take the same approach that we would about where babies come from? Like when they are younger - "God puts a baby to grow in mommy's tummy" as opposed to, well, a graphic introduction at 3 years old LOL

So hell might be - "Hell is a place people who do not love God go." or "Hell is being away from God/Jesus forever, but Jesus came because He wants to live with us forever so we do not have to go to hell."

as opposed to "Hell is a place of fiery torment, gnashing of teeth and people wail and cry and burn but they will NEVER have any relief, not a single drop of water" type deal.

For those of you who have taught your kids about it could you let us know how you broached the subject? that would be awesome.

We have never hid anything from dd about hell, its just never really come up. I mean we read bible stories all the time that refer to the devil.. like Adam and Eve, but we never really got into any detail about Satan or anything. Until the other night... I was telling her the story of Moses and the ten commandments which is one of her favorites! Anyway she started asking questions like.. what happens to the people who break God's rules? So.. I decided it was time to tell her a little bit about Hell.. I then took the oppurtunity to tell her that God loves us so much that he sent his son to dye for us because we all sin and break God's rules sometimes. She is really advanced for 3 by the way. Her understanding of salvation and faith is amazing!! But.. now I am thinking I might have explained too much.. she keeps asking more questions, like, Does Satan hate us? Does he want us to go to Hell with him? I have been trying to direct her attention away from the bad and towards God but she seems fasinated with the whole Hell topic and wants to know more! Did anyone else deal with this?

I then took the oppurtunity to tell her that God loves us so much that he sent his son to dye for us because we all sin and break God's rules sometimes.

Just to clarify.. she knows all about Jesus and everything he did but I just wanted to stress that to her at that moment.

I haven't been there yet, but maybe she's asking a lot about Satan because she knows all about Jesus, and Satan is just a new topic that she doesn't know much about, and is trying to figure this out...as much as a child can. I would answer her honestly like you have been. If my child asked me if Satan hates us, I would say "yes" because he only loves himself and wants us to fail to prove God wrong. If you think it will scare her or anything, simply remind her that because of our Salvation and God's love, we have eternal protection against going with him, and the Lord's protection is all we need, and that we have no reason to be afraid....KWIM?

I think it's awesome how open you are because there IS hell, and there IS Satan, and by not telling our children the truth, we aren't giving them the tools they need to be on alert for his attacks, but if they know he is out there, we can teach them how to turn to the Lord for protection and strength!

Keep on being a great Mommy and teacher!! :D

Amber

Oh dear! Now you have me worried that Gracie might start asking questions like that soon since they are close in age. My dd is always inquisitive.

I think the way you explained it was very well. Just keep focusing on how we need to turn to God for protection and wisdom to keep us on the right track. Other than that, I'm not sure what to say...

We are JUST NOW starting to really talk to our oldest (5) about Heaven, Hell and God. Sooooooooo..... :oops:

When my daughter asks me about it, I'll just say, "Hell is when God burns up Satan and his followers and they die and are never around again to torment God's people anymore."

Maybe I'll even share the verse from Malachi where it says that they'll be ashes under the soles of our feet and will be destroyed both root and branch.

"Then Jesus gets rid of hell and death and they are around no more. And God's people enjoy being with him in a universe made new, with no devil or bad people or pain and sorrow."

Then later we can get down to more nitty gritty stuff, if she asks more.

We talk about it from day one, as we do everything else.
:)

Since our kids were in church with us (not in the nursery), they heard what we heard and we discussed any questions, details with them at home. I don't think a discussion of hell should be off limits to a young child, but, perhaps discussed according to their understanding.

our kids learned so much about it from Sunday School and us so they learned about it fairly young.