Explaining the trinity to young children

  • Thread starter Thread starter coopnann
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

coopnann

Guest
I know the Trinity cannot really be “explained” but how do you teach it to young chidlren?

THe other day my 3 year old daughter was talking about Jesus being born, and I forget exactly our conversation, but from what I said, she became confused about God the Father and God the Son and she looked at me and said, “TWO GODS???”

How do you try to teach the Trinity with young children when it comes up?
 
I think acknowledging that it is, indeed, a “mystery” makes it easier to understand (as best we can)…
There are many tools/images you can use to describe our humanly vision… St. Patrick’s classic “3 leaves on 1 clover” is a good example, and there are dozens more.

Talk about it… a lot. Faith Formation shouldn’t just be a “class” filled with facts she has to learn. It has to be lived and discussed.

Good luck!
 
Considering she is 3, you have to bring it down to an example she can understand now. If she has a favorite doll, show her how you can “dress up” the doll to look 3 different ways, but it is still the same doll. In this way, God “dresses up” as the Father or Son or Holy Spirit but it is still the same God.

Perhaps not theologically sound enough to explain to an adult, but it should help get the idea across until she is old enough to start to grasp it more fully.

P.S. - when she is 4 you can explain the hyperstatic union and how Jesus existed since the beginning as God is exists out time. 😃
 
Hi!

I wonder if you could say that Mommy and Daddy and child are three, but they are one family. You can also say that God fixed it up special so that each new baby is also Mommy and Daddy and child, but still one family, including her. 🙂
 
Water. Whether it’s ice, liquid water or water vapor, it’s still water. Similarly, whether it’s God the Father, God the Son or God the Holy Spirit, it’s still God.
 
TheDoctor said:
Considering she is 3, you have to bring it down to an example she can understand now. If she has a favorite doll, show her how you can “dress up” the doll to look 3 different ways, but it is still the same doll. In this way, God “dresses up” as the Father or Son or Holy Spirit but it is still the same God.

Perhaps not theologically sound enough to explain to an adult, but it should help get the idea across until she is old enough to start to grasp it more fully.

P.S. - when she is 4 you can explain the hyperstatic union and how Jesus existed since the beginning as God is exists out time. 😃
Click to expand...
I dunno… sounds more like Vishnu than God to me. I thought God is threefold at the same time, not one at three different times. Am I wrong?
 
coopnann said:
I know the Trinity cannot really be “explained” but how do you teach it to young chidlren?

THe other day my 3 year old daughter was talking about Jesus being born, and I forget exactly our conversation, but from what I said, she became confused about God the Father and God the Son and she looked at me and said, “TWO GODS???”

How do you try to teach the Trinity with young children when it comes up?
Click to expand...
You can explain it in this way. Tell her every family on earth is like the Trinity in Heaven. There is a father, mother and child. The best example we have of the Trinity is of course the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Tell her the Eternal Father is repesented by St. Joseph, the Holy Spirit is represented by Mary and of course Jesus is the Son of God. The Holy Trinity is a family of three Divine Persons. Every family on earth was so designed after His most Perfect design in Heaven.

If you want to show her a picture of the Holy Trinity then there is a most beautful icon painted by a saint in Russia. He is St. Rublev of Russia who I believed gave to us the most accurate repesentation of the Holy Trinity in art form. When you see this icon you will notice all three individuals as youthful looking illustrating the eternity of these Persons thus you will see the Father as with the same youthful face as the Son signifying the Eternity of their existence. He painted it this was to show that our eternity with God will always be the same as God meaning we will be always “youthful”.
 
My son-in-law is a Presbyterian minister. On Trinity Sunday, he serves Trinity Sundaes made with Neapolitan ice cream after the service.
 
chimo said:
You can explain it in this way. Tell her every family on earth is like the Trinity in Heaven. There is a father, mother and child. The best example we have of the Trinity is of course the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Tell her the Eternal Father is repesented by St. Joseph, the Holy Spirit is represented by Mary and of course Jesus is the Son of God. The Holy Trinity is a family of three Divine Persons. Every family on earth was so designed after His most Perfect design in Heaven.

If you want to show her a picture of the Holy Trinity then there is a most beautful icon painted by a saint in Russia. He is St. Rublev of Russia who I believed gave to us the most accurate repesentation of the Holy Trinity in art form. When you see this icon you will notice all three individuals as youthful looking illustrating the eternity of these Persons thus you will see the Father as with the same youthful face as the Son signifying the Eternity of their existence. He painted it this was to show that our eternity with God will always be the same as God meaning we will be always “youthful”.
Click to expand...
Wow. I just pulled up the icon and got a tingle. I’ve seen it before; just didn’t know what it was. At first, to me, it did look like just three men sitting around a table, but as I contemplated it, it slowly didn’t seem that way at all. More contemplation in order!
 
coopnann said:
I know the Trinity cannot really be “explained” but how do you teach it to young chidlren?

THe other day my 3 year old daughter was talking about Jesus being born, and I forget exactly our conversation, but from what I said, she became confused about God the Father and God the Son and she looked at me and said, “TWO GODS???”

How do you try to teach the Trinity with young children when it comes up?
Click to expand...
I’ve always liked using an apple and its three parts – Peel, Flesh and Core. The peel is like God the Father–it protects. It is all 100% apple. The flesh is like Jesus in that it feeds us. Again it’s 100% apple. The core with its seeds is like the Holy Spirti - the seeds grow. Again it is 100% apple. You don’t have three different apples–just different parts of one apple and each part is all 100% apple.

Peace,
Mark
 
thanks for the suggestions, I am going to remember a couple of those when it comes up again. Thank you for sharing!
 
When I was little one of the priests at my Catholic School made chocolate milk during Mass! He explained the Father as the milk, the Son as the chocolate, and the spoon moving through it all as the Holy Spirit. All were an equally necessary part of making a glass of chocolate milk. As a child that LOVED my chocolate milk, it really helped me to understand it! 🙂
 
Another way I’ve heard about is telling your child this: at work, your father is known as Mr. Smith. To me, he is John. To you, he is Daddy. But he is still the same person.
Not quite sure if that helps…🤷
 
I suppose one of the most unique ways, and the way I learned from my brothers was that one it is a mystery that God can be One and Three persons. However, my older brothers used the example of a Transformer triple changer, specifically Astrotrain. The toy/character is three and one, so that helped me out a lot as a kid.
 
We had a priest explain to us that God is like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. there is the bread, the peanut butter and the jelly. Each of these is separate and individual. Each CAN exist in it’s own and has it’s own unique consistence, flavor, smell, nutritional value, etc. However, they are not that special delight that so many of us enjoy when they are put together. After you put the peanut butter on the bread, add the jelly, stick the other piece of bread on the other side, you have a union that can never fully be separated again. You still have the bread, PB and jelly and you still have the unique consistancies, flavors, smells, etc. of each ingredient, but when you peel the pieces of bread apart you can see that all of the ingredients have “fused” together into something new. It is impossible to completely separate the PB&J from each other, and you really can’t scrape the bread clean again. Each component is still there and each has a separate “function,” but until they are bonded together, the PB&J sandwich is just bread, PB and jelly–nothing special or fancy. In the Trinity, each individual has His purpose. God the Father is our creator, God the Son is our savior, God the Holy Spirit is our guide. Each person is separate in their “function,” each CAN and DOES exist individually;however, only when they are bonded together does their true nature and beauty become revealed. I thought this priest was brilliant at the time, but after reading DebChris’s post, I’m beginning to wish I was raised Presbyterian! Who wouldn’t love sundaes after church!!! 😃
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top