How to talk about Death to your Child?

Recently, we were just confronted with this subject and I asked Jehovah for guidance in dealing with it and I got it. To my surprise Little V handled it better than I expected.
A very nice friend passed away and his memorial was coming up, so I did some research about it and also had some very great friends helping me out with ways to talk about it with Little V.
Today, I'm sharing some of the things that I learned because I believe we all can benefit from it, regardless of our religious background.

The biggest challenge when the situation comes up with a child Little V's age is to decide how much she can actually understand, but that can be determined as you go along in the conversation. A few things to keep in mind though:

1) Avoid confusing your child: by applying the principle found at Ephesians 4:25 "therefore, now that you have put away deceit, each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, because we are members belonging to one another", you will see that if you tell your child so and so has gone away, they might wrongly conclude that the deceased person might come back, Instead, use simple and direct words to explain what happened: So and So died, his/her body stopped working, so now we can't talk to him/her but we will never forget him/her.

2) If your child is concerned about the deceased being in pain or suffering: you can relate what Jesus said regarding his friend Lazarus at John 11:11 "After he said these things, he added: “Lazarus our friend has fallen asleep, but I am traveling there to awaken him." Note that here Jesus said that Lazarus was sleeping, and you can help your child to understand that the deceased person no longer feels pain or is suffering by asking your child, when you are sleeping do you feel pain? Do you know what is happening around the house? You child obvious answer will be no, and you can say that's how so and so is right now, sleeping in death therefore, he/she is feeling any pain or suffering.

This is also a good time to explain the hope of resurrection that we all have, as Jesus mentioned at John 5:28,29 "Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out.”, just as Mom and Dad can easily wake up the child in the morning, that easy will Jehovah wake up those sleeping in death.

3) It is ok for the child to cry: death is an enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26), and it brings pain and suffering for those who lose someone they love and it's just natural to want to cry, so allow your child to cry but comfort him/her as well. Even Jesus cried before resurrecting Lazarus  as you can see in your own copy of the Bible at John 11:35, Jesus felt for the bereaved.

This information is Bible based and proved very helpful for me and my family to help our 5 year old daughter to deal and cope with a loss of a loved friend. If you have more questions regarding this subject feel free to get in touch, leave a comment below or visit jw.org to research more on your own.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Vanessa Z. Pawlicki