I believe in God and I consider myself a Christian. Jesus is in my heart and I pray for forgiveness every night. But in my past I’ve done some terrible things. Am I forgiven enough to go in the rapture? If so will my toddler come with me? And if she does, will we be in heaven together with her as my child? I have read that our children won’t be our children and we won’t know them anymore. That makes me very sad, is that true?
The only qualification for going in the rapture is being born again. If you are then all the sins of your life have been forgiven (Colossians 2:13-14), and God now sees you as being as righteous as He is (Romans 3:21-24, 2 Cor. 5:21, Romans 10:12-14). Look up these references for yourself so you’ll know for sure. Since your toddler is below the age of accountability, she is not responsible for her sins and will go in the rapture with you.
We don’t know what the nature of our relationships with each other will be in our next life except we’ll all belong to the family of God (John 1:12-13). That means He’ll know all of us us and we’ll know each other (1 Cor. 13:12) I don’t know where you read about not knowing your children, but I don’t believe it’s correct. We are all members of God’s family and calls us all His children. Don’t all the children in a family know each other?
The truth is, no one on Earth today can describe the nature of our life in Heaven with any degree of certainty. But Paul, who actually visited there, said it’s beyond our imagining (1 Cor. 2:9). He also said our life with the Lord will be a demonstration of the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6-7). I don’t believe any of us will ever have even a moment’s longing for the past, nor will we ever wish for anything different for our future.
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:3-4).