Breaking Big News (like the loss of a pet and pregnancy) to Little Christians

Our lives are compiled of big, defining memories glued together by lots of little moments in between. Explaining those big moments, both good and bad, to young people is no easy task. Here are a couple of suggestions on helping the little Christians in your life embrace the big news in ways they can understand:

Losing a Pet

Losing a pet can be traumatic for children and adults alike. For many, it's like losing a family member. As painful as it is, this is a very teachable moment for Christian families. We recently lost our fourteen-year-old dog, Sam, and this was nothing short of heart-wrenching. Sam was a part of my life, even before I met my husband, Jon. He played an important role in our family in good times and in bad. Oh, if that dog could have talked! As hard as it was Jon and I to let him go, it was even harder to watch our children's pain and grief as they too said goodbye to their beloved pet.
Through my tears though, I told the kids how lucky Sam was. Sam was going to heaven that day. In heaven, he'd run and play like he did before his body began to give out on him. He'd get to play with their cousins' dogs that had also passed, but most of all, he'd get to play with Jesus. How lucky we'll all be when we get to spend our days in Jesus' presence. Such joy.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, we had a "Happy Birthday in Heaven" party in Sam's honor that night. Children love birthday parties and this was certainly something worth celebrating. Sam was in a really wonderful place, a place we strive to go one day. In fact, we appropriately marked the occasion with angel food cake and Sam's personal favorite....pepperoni. A day we'll never forget, for sure, and a very teachable moment for us all.

We're having a baby!

Fetal development is a tough concept for many young children to grasp. I personally struggled with this years ago when I tried to explain to my then fifteen-month-old that she was going to be a big sister. The concept of a "baby in Mommy's tummy" was just a bit more than she could grasp. Barney she got. Baby she didn't, especially since I didn't look pregnant at that stage. I thought that with all of the great resources explaining fetal development to adults, why wasn't there a child-friendly version for little ones? So I wrote one...a book entitled The Miracle of Me.

Written from the unborn baby's perspective, The Miracle of Me is about the baby's life in the womb. Using simple language and poetry, I take the young reader on a week-by-week journey on how the baby grows and develops. The most impactful feature to me though is the use of real in-utero photography. The images, in conjunction with everyday objects like rulers and scales, help the reader visualize and appreciate the baby in the womb.

There was one other thing that I thought was important when I wrote this book. I wanted to reinforce to my daughter that she too was a miracle designed by God. Like all of us, she was chosen by Him. I wanted to assure her that she was not only special in His eyes, but she was (and always would be) special in my eyes no matter how many children we might be blessed with. We are ALL God's miracles.

It's times like these that define us. As parents, it's important for us to embrace these teachable moments to help mold our children into the Christian adults we pray for them to become.

� 2009 Amy Pedersen