Jesika , great points........I agree with being the best we can be, and after we die we will be safe, in God's hands.
Big Tex,,,,,,,,when my mom died,,,,,,, it was just like you said, I felt the same thing, just staring at her,not understanding how just a few hours she was alive, breathing, there. Then she wasnt. In a matter of minutes it takes the brain to die, she was forever gone from me. It stumped me to know you can live ,your heart beat , your lungs breathing for years and in a matter on minutes it is all gone, all forgotten. I had literal trouble accepting my mom's body was dead, I actually kept thinking i saw her hand move or I saw her breathing, she looked like she was sleeping , like so many times I had seen her sleep. It really took my brain time to accept that the shell was there but she was not.
It makes me wonder , even back as a jw , if life is snuffed out that quick, i mean the spirit of a person. It seems sad to me if they are aware that we are suffering and crying for them and they can't comfort us. I would like to live on after death, but would be sad to think I couldnt comfort my kids and let them know I was alive in heaven or wherever.
My youngest son, always asks me on a weekly basis , where we go when we die. He asked the other day if the New World was still true.
I just tell him when we die Jesus takes care of us, maybe we go to heaven for awhile and wait for our family there, and visit with the ones who died before us. Maybe we get to be with Jesus and talk to him, maybe we get to fly around and watch the ones living on earth........trying to say things a child would understand. I even said there could be a New World a paradise, I hope so, that would be nice,,,,,,,,,we will just have to see. I told him that if I die, when a leave falls to the ground that will be me......and that will be my way of telling him I am thinking of him......... I dont mean to make up stuff, but if I can I will make that leaf fall if I can possibly let my child know I am there.
He really needed to know that I would be happy someplace because he told me if I died, he wanted to die and be buried with me.
I had to tell him no,,,,,,,, that if I was in heaven, i would want to watch him grow up and have children for me to watch grow up. I told him that when I start to die, I think my mom will come to me and take me to her place in Heaven and we can catch up and talk and talk. He seemed to like this idea as much as I do. I told him to not be afraid if something happens and I die,,,, that it will be ok, I will have lots of family there to be with and that I will always be with him.
Honestly I have no idea , but I am open to any idea and it all sounds too good to be true , but maybe it is that way. My little son was able to fall asleep after hearing that,,,,,,,and he will remember what I have said,,,,,,he never forgets anything. As the kids get older I want to instill in them the need to search all things out and learn as much as they can and come up with their own beliefs.
This is majoy strides in my son, because he was so scared of armeggedon and of me dying and just being in the cold ground. He seems more at peace with this idea, and that little boy is more spiritual than anyone I know. He even told me he saw Jesus in a dream,,,,,,,, but he wasnt sure if it was a picture in his mind he saw. He loves God and Jesus , even thou we have been away from the jw, the kingdom hall for almost 1 1/2.... he proves you dont have to have a religion to be a spiritual person.