Deep Talks

Earlier this evening as I was busy cooking and attempting to clean my counters off, I looked over to see Hunter sitting on the bench of our dining room table. Of course I knew I was about to get a "hey momma" question about something....Hunter is all about asking questions about everything these days. He surprised me when he asked if I know "stuff" about God. That got my attention, so I joined him at the table, along with Hannah now, and asked him what he wanted to know. He of course asked if we have Jesus in our hearts. He's been talking about having Jesus in your heart for a few months now. I'm assuming it's from school and church. They do daily devotionals and chapel at school now, so I'm sure they are teaching them more and more things. I answered him the same way I always do with saying "yes, I have Jesus in my heart, and so does daddy. Do you have Jesus in your heart?" Both of their replies were "Yes! Jesus is in our hearts"

Typically the conversation would have ended here and I would have continued cleaning and they would have continued playing but, I kept it going for a little while. See, I just finished reading the book Heaven is for Real the night before. It is an awesome book, if you haven't read it, get it. It's about a little boy who has a near death experience and experienced what it was like to be in heaven. True story. It's the kind of book that makes you really think about stuff you don't normally think about, and I thought it was so weird that Hunter randomly came and asked me if I "know stuff about God" right after I read this book. So I decided to take the opportunity to see what they already know and what they wanted to know. It was harder than I thought it would be to explain things to them in 4 year old terms, but here's a recap of how it went....Hunter and Hannah actually did a lot of the explaining to me.

Hunter: Does God love us a lot? (this was his first question)

Me: Yes, he loves us more than anyone does...he loved us so much that he gave up his only son to die for our sins (haven't ever used the word die with them yet)

Hunter: Jesus?

Me: Yep

Hunter: So God is Jesus's daddy?

Me: Yep, and do you know where they live?

Hannah: Heaven! (Pointing to the sky)

Hannah: and our teachers say that Jesus wants us to love each other,and not fight or hit

Hunter: or kick in the face (not sure where that came from, maybe somebody got kicked at school)

Hannah: and Jesus wants us to listen to our mommies and daddies and teachers and be respectful

Me: that's right

Hunter: and God wants us to be happy and heals people who are sick?

Me: Yep, that's why we pray for people who are sick or sad so that God will help them

Hannah: Because God answers our prayers?

Me: that's right....do you want to pray for anyone that needs Gods help now?

Hannah: I want to pray for Jaxson and Skylar at school to stop being bad and not listening

Hunter: and for Ryder to stop being mean and for him to share

Me: Ummm, ok. We can pray for them to be nice, to share, and to listen

* Hunter prayed this prayer for us*

Me: Is there anyone else that's sick or needs healing you can think to pray for?

Hannah: Like paw paw Leveritt? That he feels better? (they still hadn't grasped the fact that he passed away and is no longer here. This is the only funeral that they've been old enough to ask questions about and we just told them he went to be with Jesus...I knew they didn't really understand it though)

Me: Well, paw paw leveritt isn't here on earth anymore, remember he passed away. But he had Jesus in his heart so he is in Heaven now. I could tell they got it now, because they both thought about it for a second.

Hunter: Well, how's Grandma Leveritt doing?

Me: She's doing fine now, she probably misses paw paw though

Hunter: Well, we can pray for Grandma Leveritt that she doesn't get lonely (this brought tears to my eyes)

Me: Good idea

*Hannah prayed this one, and we also prayed for grandma Kim's back to get better*

After we finished praying, I asked if there was anything or anyone else they wanted to pray about. To this Hunter scrunched up his face and replied:

"no momma, I think that's enough talkin to Jesus for today"

WORD FOR WORD....then went about playing with his toys

I sat there still not believing we had such an impromptu meaningful conversation...totally unexpected. I was so glad I had taken the few extra minutes with them because it made me realize how much they take in at such an early age, and how innocent and impressionable they are. I hope I explained at least some of the things the right way, I'm sure we will have plenty of opportunities in the future, but it makes me feel so good to know that they've already grasped some of the most important things we need to know about God's love. As a parent, I can't think of anything more important than that.