Question from a reader:
One of our church’s Sunday school teachers recently died. We would like to get some resources (book recommendations/links to helpful information) to the parents in our church to help navigate discussions, prayer time, grief, etc. What resources do you recommend?
Answer from Eternal Perspective Ministries:
We’re sorry to hear about your church’s recent loss, and appreciate the way your team is encouraging your church body to think about grief and Heaven in healthy ways.
Resources for kids and Heaven:
- Article from Randy - Teaching Children About Heaven: Answering Your Child’s Questions
- Randy’s interview with Pastor Greg Laurie on Kids and Questions about Heaven
- Article from Randy - Why Talking about Mortality with Your Loved Ones Isn’t Morbid, But a Gift
- Article from Randy - Talking to Your Children about Creation, Christ, and Heaven
List of recommended books—there is a variety here, and different ones work better for different ages:
- Amazing Questions Kids Ask About Heaven and Angels (Tyndale Publishers)
- God Made Me For Heaven by Marty Machowski
- Heaven for Kids by Randy Alcorn
- Let’s Talk About Heaven by Debby Anderson
- Someday Heaven by Larry Libby
- Tell Me About Heaven by Randy Alcorn
- Wait Until Then by Randy Alcorn
- What About Heaven? by Kathleen Bostrom
Resources on Grief:
- Randy has written and shared quite a bit on grief since his wife’s death in 2022. Most of our resources are geared toward adults, but may help parents as they talk with their children. He does say this in his book Heaven for Kids:
Has anyone close to you died? Do you look forward to being with that person in Heaven? Look at the great words from 1 Thessalonians 4 at the beginning of this chapter. God says that when Christians grieve it’s different than when others grieve. Why? Because we know in Heaven we will be together again with those we love. We will be with the Lord forever, and with each other forever.
When a loved one who knows Jesus dies, of course it’s still very hard for us. Jesus understands that—he himself cried after Lazarus died, because he didn’t like death, and he knew Mary and Martha were terribly sad (John 11:35).
We should remind ourselves, however, that death isn’t the end of our relationships. It’s just an interruption. It’s like the people who have died have gone on a trip ahead of us, but later we’re going to join them. And then we’ll always be together. So our separation from them isn’t forever. It’s only for a brief time.
- Here’s one book from our recommended list of grief books: Children and Grief: Helping Your Child Understand Death by Joey O’Connor: resource to help children deal with death, loss and grief.
Also, here are a few resources that might be of help:
- Helping Children Cope with Grief
- Focus on the Family has grouped several resources together
- A podcast on Walking Through Grief with Your Child
- Also Guiding Your Child Through Grief
God bless you and your church, as you grieve with great hope.
Photo: Unsplash
