Chapter 1

WHAT ARE WE?

Look in the mirror. What do you see? You.

You see your face , your hair, eyes, your hands and feet, and legs.

You see your body. You can be big, small, tall or short, light or dark skinned. There are all kinds of bodies.

But, there is also a "YOU", that you cannot see.

You cannot see it when you look in the mirror, but it is there all the same.

It is called your  SPIRIT.

It is in your body and it makes you "YOU."

Your spirit is what makes your body move and feel and cry and laugh.

When a baby is born, it already has a spirit inside it.

A spirit is what makes a body, a person, and no one is like anyone else.

Only you, are YOU.

Chapter 2

GOD

Look around your room.

You see toys, your bed, dressers, clothes.

Who made all these things?

People did. Yes, I know you knew that.

Now, look out the window. You see grass, birds, trees, stars at night and the moon, and more.

Who made these things?

God.

Who is God?

God was here before there were people or grass or dogs or cats or cows or dinosaurs or anything.

We cannot see God, but we know God by what God made.

God decided to make all kinds of wonderful things, especially alive things.

God made things very, very  slowly so things would be just right.

In fact, they would be perfect.

God made things so slowly… the sun and the moons and the planets were formed…and then came the water and plants and animals.

Then came people and eventually you!

Moms and Dads help God make children.

God makes the spirits inside all of us.

God watches over everything.

God is Perfectly Good and Gentle, and Loves all things, especially you.

We cannot see God, but we can see all the things God has made.

That is just the way it is.

Chapter 3

HERE AND THERE

You are HERE in your house or apartment.

You are alive!

You, with your spirit in your body, are alive.

But where was your spirit before you were a baby?

You were THERE, in the spirit world.

Some people call this place heaven.

We cannot see this place now.

When God decides a baby is to be born, a spirit has to enter the body of a baby to enter this world.

As the baby grows…

it becomes a child, then teenager, than after a long time, a grownup.

The bodies of grownups get older after a long time.

Their hair sometimes gets white or gray or bald.

Their skin gets wrinkly, too.

But their spirit inside, never changes.

When God decides that it is time for that spirit to go back to the spirit world or heaven, they must go.

Their time HERE is done.

So…..when a person dies, they just really go from

HERE to THERE, back into the spirit world.

Their spirit NEVER dies, only their body does.

Heaven, or the spirit world, is a special place, where our bodies cannot go.

But we can learn more about God there.

When we are HERE, we cannot see THERE.

Sometimes we are very sad and we miss those family and friends, who must go back to heaven,  while we are still HERE.

But, we will all go THERE when it is our time.

We can see again all who we have missed.

Since God is All Good and Knows Everything, only God knows when it is the right time to return.

Sometimes, God decides to send back to the spirit world those  people who are in terrible accidents, or who are very, very sick.

The reason for this is so they won’t suffer anymore.

But only God decides.

Everyone must stay HERE until their right time.

God has put us HERE to learn, grow and help each other.

If we left before our time, we would not be able to do the things God knows we will do in this life.

God knows when it is the right time.

Either way, it is only a change: from HERE to THERE, or from THERE to HERE.

SCARY, SAD, AND NOT-SO-GOOD TIMES

Sometimes we hurt if we fall down.

If we fall down and skin our knee, we hurt our body.

But sometimes our spirit hurts inside, when someone hurts our feelings, or we are afraid of something, or we feel sad for doing something wrong.

If we hurt our knee, we can put medicine on it and a band aid to make it feel better.

What can we do to make our spirit feel better?

What do you do?

Well….

there are many things that can work.

We can get big hugs from someone we love.

We can cry… sometimes this helps.

Another thing we can do is talk to God.

God always listens to us.

God loves us all.

Even if we do something we know is wrong,

God loves us no matter what.

Talking to God is called PRAYING, or PRAYER.

We can pray in our thoughts because God knows what we are thinking.

Prayer is better in a quiet place, when we are alone.

But God always listens to whatever we have to say,anytime or anywhere.

We can ask God to forgive us when we have done something we should not have.

God likes when we do this because then God knows we are sorry.

We can ask God to help make us strong if we are sad or afraid.

It is hard to understand why, but God can make our spirit feel better.

It helps to know God Sees, Hears, and Knows all.

We can also pray for help.

Sometimes God answers our prayers.

We should always thank God afterwards.

If God does not, there is ALWAYS a good reason.

God Knows better about these things than we do.

God Knows what is, and what will be.

God might want us to learn some lessons,

like when we eat too much we get a stomach ache.

If we learned the lesson, we won’t eat so much again.

But God Loves us and can makes us feel better even if we do not get what we think we want,

if we pray and have faith.

We should also pray to God, to thank Him for all the many good things, or blessings, we have in our life;

I'm sure you can think of some.

But, we can even thank Him for such things as the beautiful sun rises and sunsets, and the colorful rainbows He gives us.
 

WHAT IS FAITH?

Faith is trusting God to know what is better for us.

God is Good, Powerful, and Wonderful.

God Loves us; we are God’s children.

We must trust God to know what is best for us.

God is very, very smart; God Knows everything.

One thing to remember…since God is Good and Powerful,

Goodness ALWAYS wins over evil.

Sometimes, it may seem, bad things will not change or stop, but…it will get better sooner or later, sometimes much later.

Sometimes, what looks bad to us, can change into something good.

Your parents can help explain more about this to you if you have more questions.

When we have strong faith inside of us, our spirit feels more calm and peaceful.
 

OUR GUARDIAN ANGEL

We have learned that we have a body and a spirit.

Sometimes, spirits in the spirit world or heaven (before they get a body) are given by God the job of watching over a person HERE like us.  It’s true!

Each one of us HERE, has a guardian angel (a spirit protector) who watches over us.

They are God‘s helpers.

The spirits who get this special job are full of love for us and are very, very good.

Sometimes, when we have to make a decision and are thinking about our problems, we get different ideas in our head.

It is hard to tell where these ideas come from.

Some of these ideas come from our guardian angel.

God wanted it to be hard to tell which ideas are from who because God wants us to make our own decisions for ourselves.

This is how we learn and grow, from our mistakes, and whatever happens by the decisions we make.

Our spirit protector is our friend who loves us and acts as a guide for our life HERE.

Our prayers are also heard by them, too.
 

GOOD AND BAD

Since God is All Good, God wants us to be good.

God wants us to be good when we talk, when we do anything, and, in our thoughts.

When we are good, we feel good inside.

Our guardian angel is pleased, and so is God.

God put us all here to be good and to help one another as much as we can.

Sometimes, we do or say something that is not right.

God knows we make mistakes.

Sometimes we make a lot of bad decisions.

But God and our spirit guide and protector love us all the same.

They just want us to try and be a little bit better the next day.

As long as we keep trying, that’s what counts.

With people, we should always treat them as we would like to be treated.

If we want to feel love by others, we should love others.

If we want kindness, we should be kind to others.

If we want forgiveness, we should forgive others…and on and on…..

Sometimes we have to be the first one to be good, and kind, for others to follow our example.

Maybe someone we know acts mean because they have always been treated mean, or they have been made fun of.

If we are gentle and kind to them, we might be able to change them.

God will be pleased if we try.

You are responsible for your actions.

Do always what you feel in your heart is right.
 

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED?

1 - What two things make you, "YOU" ?

2 - Who made the things people did NOT make?

3 - Where are spirits before they are born?

4 - Where do spirits go after their body dies?

5 - Can you go there anytime you want?

6 - Why?

7 - What is PRAYER?

8 - What is FAITH?

9 - Who is our guardian angel or protector spirit?

10 - Can you describe God?

11 - Why should we be good?

12 - What is a good rule on how we should treat other people?

13 - What can we do when we are scared or sad or our spirit hurts inside?
 

THE ANSWERS

1 - Your body and your spirit.

2 - God.

3 - The spirit world.

4 - The spirit world.

5 - No, only God decides who comes and goes.

6 - We are here for a reason, to learn and grow, and we will be doing the things we need to do. If we were not here things would not get done.

7 - Talking to God.

8 - Trusting God.

9 - A spirit who is especially assigned by God to watch over us, to guide us and helps us. Everyone has one.

10 - All-Loving, All-Powerful, All-Good, All-Wise, All Knowing, and Wonderful!

11 - God and our spirit guides are good and expect us to try and be good. WE are HERE to help each other. It makes us feel wonderful in side our spirit, when we are good, too.

12 - Treat others as you would like to be treated.

13 - We can pray and ask for help from God and our spirit protectors.

 How well did you do? Did you know all the answers? Good.

Copyrights SSFL (2003)