Pastorale berading aan kinders met onverwerkte rousmart

Abstract

Bereavement experienced by children is often a subject which is avoided. Young children are not given the opportunity to really live through their loss or to grasp the reality of death. Grief is the intense emotion of sadness and pain experienced at the death of a loved one. After that, there is a normal period of mourning, separation, longing and sadness. Children are, however, not given enough support and guidance to work through this experience. The advancement in medicine and science has also aided in moving death and the resultant grief to the sterile environment of a hospital. The care and removal of the body is done by the undertaker. Denial often deprives children of the opportunity to say good-bye, to exercise mourning activities and to acknowledge the different emotions experienced by them. The basis of grief recovery is researched in the Word of God. Exegesis that shows how Jesus Christ treats children sheds further light on the necessity of being sympathetically involved, as well as on the handling of grief. The consequences of unresolved grief are discussed in psychology and pedagogics. The researcher has shown that emotional, physical, spiritual and social problems which arise from unassimilated grief can be overcome through Biblical counselling and includes some guidelines for counselling.