Children need to be assisted through his or her grief recovery process. Children’s grief reactions usually reciprocate how their parents or adults within their environment respond to grief. As adults, we need to prayerfully show and guide our children through their grieving process.
Suggestive tips on helping children through their grieving process.
1. Teach that death is part of life. Find teachable moments. Examples season changes, death of a pet, visiting elderly to illustrate that aging is normal.
2. Be honest. Prayerfully ask God to show us how to speak the truth about the death versus saying the person went to sleep or is gone away.
3. Don’t delay talking about a death. This can be more harm than good. Someone else may tell them or they can overhear it from others.
4. Answer questions. Answer their questions and even admit when you do not have the answers.
5. Recognize fear. If we sense our child expressing fear about seeing the body or attending the funeral, we should not force him or her. Make sure we comfort and reassure the child following the death of a loved one that he or she knew.
6. Let them see us grieve. This will reassure them that it is ok to grieve at the loss of a loved one. This will illustrate that emotional pain is a part of losing a loved one.
7. Cherish the memories. Make sure we talk about the deceased to let them know that we are not trying to forget the memory of the loved one. Go through photo albums discuss fun times. This will allow one to reminisce about pleasant experiences.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4 NIV).
