Apologetics for 4th graders? Tips please!

[Elzee]

I’m trying to help out a Catholic school teacher I know, but I need your help since I don’t have much experience with kids.

Last week one of her students (a 4th grader) said he was asked by his friend* ‘if he died tonight would he know he was going to heaven’* (starts early, doesn’t it?) This teacher is very good and has already told her kids they can be assured of their salvation, but that in the end, God is only one who judges us, and pointed out that even St. Paul didn’t judge himself.

Apparently the boy had the presence of mind to say this, but his friend didn’t let it drop. He told him ‘he was wrong, and that HE (the friend) was sure of HIS salvation’. The (Catholic) boy didn’t know how to respond to this and told her he felt ‘stupid and embarassed’.

Any tips I can pass along to this teacher? She would like to spend some time talking about this type of confrontation with her class.

 

[Catholic_Dude]

I really dont know. I guess you could mention the parable of the prodigal son in Lk 15 and show how the God will not only never abandon you but he will take you back with open arms if you go astray. As long as they dont go astray they are safe…dont know if this is good for kids though

 

[maryjk]

We use Friendly Defenders

friendlydefenders.com/index2.htm

They are flash cards that are based on what a child might hear and what he/she might say.

Like this card, from the Salvation section:
“I know for sure I’m going to heaven.” On one side of the card.

To this on the other:
“That’s a nice thought, but it’s not biblical that you, personally, can know you are definitely going to heaven.”

“He saved us…that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:5, 7

“We can have assurance God wants us to go to heaven and will give us the graces we need. That’s the virtue of hope. But we must persevere to the end.
Related verses: Matt 7:20, 10:22, 24:13;Phil 2:12; 1Cor 9:27, 10:11-12; Rom 8:24-25, 11:22.”

It is a set of 50 cards, full color that have questions and the answers. We love them.