From Rev. Alex,

Some parents asked me for resources for talking to your kids about COVID, particularly from a faith perspective.  While I could find many articles which provide excellent resources for talking to kids about COVID, I could not find any articles about how we talk about our Christian faith in light of this pandemic.  So I’m sharing a few tips and guidance for navigating this:

• Don’t try to teach a lesson: Just like in our Godly Play classroom, when it comes to faith it is best for kids to come to their own insights, rather than trying to force an insight/new perspective.  So try to let go of any desire for them to “achieve” or “learn” some spiritual lesson in all this.  Just give them the space to explore (just like Godly Play).

• It is okay if your kid is mad at God right now: We all get mad at God sometimes.  Sometimes we’re mad at God for a really long time.  And that’s okay.  Moses got mad at God when he was stuck with the Israelites wandering in the desert.  Job got mad at God when his whole life was destroyed.  Jonah got mad at God when he was sent to deliver a message to his mortal enemies.  Jesus was probably mad at God when he was carrying that heavy cross to the place of the skull.  Don’t try to change your child’s feelings…give them ways to express and explore those feelings (that’s what prayer is at its best…but don’t call it that 😉 ).

• Engage the stories of faith: The great Christian tradition is at its core a tradition of storytelling.  Notice that Jesus rarely tells people “the message”, he mostly teaches through stories.  See if you can talk about a story from scripture that has some parallels to our current situation…that will naturally begin a conversation about our current situation and the life of faith.  Remember: don’t use the story to teach a lesson, use the story to create a space to explore feelings and thoughts.  Here are some good options (this probably will work best if you can find these stories in a children’s Bible, or if you can learn the story and tell it in your own words):

1. The Israelites wandering in the desert & Moses’ distress/need for help/crying out to God (Numbers 11: 4–17)
2. The story of Job (I obviously wouldn’t read the entire story to them, and I would personally leave out the part about God and Satan making a game out of the situation…but the basic structure is very applicable: Job loses everything…Job suffers and is essentially all alone…Job expresses all his anger, frustration, fear, and sadness at God…and then Job encounters the Holy and he is blessed for his faithfulness)
3. The raising of Lazarus (John 11: 1 – 44)
4. Jesus raises a widow’s son (Luke 7:11 – 17)
5. Jesus’ directions about love (John 15: 9 – 17)