Daddy, what’s a soul?
It’s the part of you that never dies.
You mean like a ghost?
Something like that. Except you can’t see it. And it doesn’t go around rattling chains, scaring people, or stealing socks out of dryers.
What happens to your soul when you die?
Some people believe it goes to heaven.
Is heaven a town?
It’s a place high above the clouds. Only the souls of good people are allowed in.
Did we pass heaven when we flew to Granny Terry’s last year?
No, it’s much higher than that. Anyway, you can’t see it while you’re alive.
Daddy, if you can’t see heaven or souls, how do you know they exist?
It’s called faith. Some people believe in souls and heaven. Some don’t.
What’s faith?
Faith is when you believe in something even though you can’t prove it exists. Take Santa Claus for example. You believe he exists even though you’ve never seen him.
Daddy, I believe Santa exists but I don’t believe reindeer can fly.
Well, people have different ideas about Santa and his reindeer just like people have different ideas about what happens after we die. Some people believe the souls of good people go to heaven to be with God.
Do you believe in God?
Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.
Why do the souls of good people have to go to heaven? Why can’t the souls of bad people go there and the souls of good people stay here on earth?
Well, some people think they do and that our souls enter the bodies of other people when we die. That’s called reincarnation.
Do you believe in re…in…car…
Reincarnation? No, I don’t. I figure if I can’t remember anything about my previous life, then what’s the point in believing I had one?
Then what do you think happens to us when we die?
I believe my love for you and Eddy will live forever. But I’m not planning to die for a long, long time so please don’t worry about it.
But when I grow up to be an adult you’re going to be as old as Papa Robert!
Papa Robert may be bald and have a white beard but he is in very good shape and should live a long, long time. Anyway by the time I’m his age, you and Eddy will be married with children of your own, and your mother and I will come to visit our grandchildren and listen to them ask you all kinds of difficult questions.
=
Your responses to Marton’s questions are honest, informative, open and non-judgmental, and above all are non-threatening and non-intimidating. They could serve as a model for good fathers everywhere.
.
Similar common theme was explored in Church this morning. Important to teach your children to think and not admonish them for individual thoughts and-or feelings that do not necessarily represent their parents.
My children are 35, 37 and 40 and the best gift I have provided all of them was the ability to have a differing opinion without feeling chastised, empty-headed or satirized. Souls become ugly when they are filled with self-interest and feel superior to their fellow man.
There is a God. We will all answer to him one day and he will provide us with the same respect and courtesy that we have bestowed upon our fellow man. I have lived my own life with this simple truth in mind “do unto others as you’d have done to you.”