how/when to introduce concept of 'God' to DC?

[vannah]

My DS is coming up to 3,and until now we have been doing a little prayer in bed together at night.
Only I tried to explain it to him, that we were praying to a 'God' - and didnt want to use the old cliche of the old man who lives up in the sky (we believe that God is everywhere and not in human form)

how on earth do you explain this - who God is, why we are praying? And should it best be left till later?
thankyou

flip knows!
I'm a practising Catholic and the Sunday school teacher and i dread the days when i have to start telling ds about God in a non-scary way.
He's 2, btw.
I'm watching this thread with interest, lol!

IMHO go with the flow. If he wants to know he'll ask. If he asks you just have to answer as honestly and simply as you can. I realise this may not always be easy but I'm a firm believer in being able to say "I don't know" or "I'm going to think about that and tell you later/tomorrow".

Don't know if that helps...

I wouldn't mention it explicitly yet, it is too abstract a concept for a three year old. Surely better to let him or her grow up asking questions and being open to all ideas/beliefs rather than being told.

thankyou all...

I think you need to work out for yourself who God is and why we are praying, and then couch it in terms your DS would understand. Mine have never had the "old man who lives up in the sky". He will still ask questions when he is older, and that (I think) is a good thing.

This way God becomes a natural part of your child's life. If you don't introduce God now, when do you think a good time would be? It just makes it all the more difficult. After all, if you had a brother/sister you never see but are close to, would you never refer to them?

Having children and answering their questions REALLY makes you think about your own faith, I've found!

Since our children were tiny (the day they were born) we have prayer over them at bedtime and then slowly with them as they came to understand.

We have explained that God is like nothing we can imagine ... hard to understand ... in heaven and yet everywhere at all times and in all places.

Our kids have taken this in as natural.

We find it easier to pray to Jesus, as he is a person, someone who lived on earth like us - they can picture him more easily than an abstract, more impersonal 'God"

HTH