…or lack thereof.  Last night I was having dinner with my boys (my husband wasn’t there as he was on his way home from a business trip) when the subject of angels came up.  I don’t remember why we were talking about angels; I think I just said something about them being my little angels or something and then my 4-year old asked, “What’re angels?”  While I was trying to explain angels on a preschool level my 7-year old interrupted. “I don’t believe in angels. I don’t believe in God, either.”  I have to admit I was shocked to hear this.  Even though I often admit to myself that I am sort of an “agnostic Christian,” I have been attempting to raise little Christian boys.  We don’t go around talking about Jesus this, Jesus that, or God bless this and God said so-and-so all the time, but we do attend church and read some Bible stories at home as well.

I tamped down my shock so that I wouldn’t show it to him. Instead I just asked him why he didn’t believe in God. He said “I don’t believe in things that are invisible. Things can’t be invisible.”  His favorite subject in school is science and he is a very pragmatic little scientist already, I guess.

I asked him about germs, “You can’t see germs, right? But you believe germs exist?”  Him: “Well, yeah.”  (I knew he believed in germs because he is already something of a germaphobe.  Then I remembered wind.  “How about this: what makes the trees move?”  Him: “Wind.”  Me: “Well, can you see the wind?”  Him: “No.”  Me: “But you believe it’s there, right?”  Him: “Yeah.”  Me: “So to me that’s what God is like. I can’t see God but I can see what he has done in the world.”

I don’t know–it’s tough to know how much I should “indoctrinate” my children.  I want to teach them my worldview but as I’m not always sure what that is myself, how can I push it on them?  I ended by telling him, “Daddy and I believe in God and we want you to learn about what we believe, but we can’t make you believe the same.  You are always free to decide what you believe.”  This whole thing might be too deep for a 7-year old. I don’t know.

This morning my husband did an experiment with Isaac to show him how something invisible can be real.  He used a paintbrush and lemon juice to paint words on a paper. Then he used a match to heat it up to show the words.  He wrote, “Isaac, God loves you.”

I know the rest of my family would probably be pushing them to “accept Jesus as their lord and savior” and making sure they understand that they are sinners, etc.  I’m not comfortable with that but I want them to have faith.  So what to do?  It’s hard when I’m not sure what I believe and I’m not the most faith-filled person myself to teach my children about God.  So what do you think? How should we raise our children in faith?

1. anne Says:
   June 12th, 2010 at 11:23 pm

   I was once given the wise advice to let my children have their own spiritual path. Their faith is there own. I think he’s a kid and is trying to figure it out.

2. anne Says:
   June 12th, 2010 at 11:24 pm

   Forgive my spelling errors. Their faith is their own. I don’t proofread enough.

3. Rosemary Says:
   June 14th, 2010 at 4:12 pm

   I don’t know why I was so shocked that he doesn’t believe. We are not (like I said) super-faith-filled types as parents and I have always believed what you said (though I really like the way you said it). I guess it’s like you were talking about your childhood faith in a previous post–at his young age I was such a believer–it never would have even occurred to me to doubt God’s existence at the time.

4. Judith Says:
   July 3rd, 2010 at 12:45 am

   I love this story. I love your little guy’s reasoning mind, your gentle answer, and your husband’s loving attention. Wonderful example!