Hashem is Pretend (Ch'V)

IndyMom

Sun, Apr 09 2006, 9:51 pm

My 4 year old son has been waking up 3 or 4 times a night for the past 2 weeks screaming that scary things are in his room. Every night one of us ends up in his room or he comes to our bed. I finally decided to confront the issue before bedtime tonight. I got him a "magic" spray to spray scary things and a "magic" salt shaker with invisible powder that keeps scary things from walking on the carpet. He totally went ofr it and we sprayed and powdered the entire room and pt the spray and the salt shaker next to him. After that I said shema with him and told him that Hashem will protect him all night from any scary thing. That's when he looked at me funny and said "mommy, Hashem is pretend!" I was shocked. How can my intellegent 4 year old belive in invisible monstor powder and not in Hashem? I didnt even know what to say. I told him that Hashem is real and that monstor spray is pretend. Of course that backfired becuase now he is afraid of the scary things and knows that the moster spray won' help him. (he still believes inthe salt shaker though go figure). So,???? How do I get my son to believe in Hashem? I am a science student and we are currently learning about evolution in my class so my son's sudden atheism is really striking a cord since I am surrounded all day by atheists and I am afraid that it is rubbing off on him some how.

Motek

Mon, Apr 10 2006, 3:55 pm

IndyMom wrote:

How do I get my son to believe in Hashem? I am a science student and we are currently learning about evolution in.

Jews are "maaminim bnei maaminim" (believers, children of believers). Your son, by virtue of being Jewish, naturally believes in Hashem. This belief can be obscured though, with contrary messages.

One way to instill yiras shomayim is through stories of tzadikim. Since you've written that you come from a line of tzadikim, stories about them will be especially powerful for your son.

Tefila

Mon, Apr 24 2006, 6:12 pm

By saying and incl outloud Hashem in our lives like B"h I am fine today, or let him see you davening or thanking Hashem when he see's mummy talking to Hashem and constantly praising etc his belief will come. Since hashem is part of your living every day life not just a concept. Hatzlacha hope this will help Wink

shira

Tue, Apr 25 2006, 3:01 pm

Also, help him to feel hashem in his world. Point to flowers and say, "look at the beautiful flowers that hashem made for us to enjoy!" OR "Wow, those are amazing mountains! Didn't hashem create such a beautiful world for us to live in?" etc etc