Listening

I love my conversations with our sweet four year old as she goes to bed. Either Clint or I will read her her Bible story then it is like a little flood gate opens and we get to listen.

I know she chooses to talk at this time so she does not have to immediately go to sleep, but then again, its the only time she stays still enough to think and talk seriously for a longer period of time.

I am looking forward to getting her a little more 'grown up' of a B ible when we are in the states next as she is asking questions far beyond what this little one is addressing. We basically read the story, then I sit with her and pretty much talk about the story re-telling it with more detail. Not because I am trying hard to 'teach her something' but because she asks. She asks if people were jealous of each other, or why they went somewhere, or what things mean.

Minus a lot of details and parts of the conversation here is some of what came about tonight....

I wish I would have wrote things down right away because now I do not remember how the whole conversation tonight got started. Somehow she made the comment that "J esus is kind of like a teacher, isn't he Mama?"

Why yes! I pointed out that we read the story tonight of the Lord's prayer, which is Him teaching us how to pray.

Then somehow she said something about going to heaven and I used the word "forever" which I guess she had never thought of the concept of eternity. Tears flowed as she struggled to get out "I like this country, I don't want to leave and never come back."

Next to explain how we wont even want to come back once we are there. I began describing heaven further than her 'kids' bibles have. Among other things, we mentioned streets of gold, mansions (which brought the question "What is a mansion" and "We get to live in them?") but the best part is that we get to be with J esus.  I told her we would sing and dance in the presence of the Lord. To which she questioned

"How will we dance if we are stuck in a box?"

Stuck in a box....ok....we have been to a western funeral in the past year and she has not gotten over the concept that bodies are put into boxes, then into the ground.

Whew, she does not miss anything....nor does she forget anything!

Next came a whole conversation about one of her favorite nuts. Comparing our bodies to the shell of a pistachio and our spirit to the nut. That once we take the nut out, we can hold the shell in our fingers to look like it still has the nut inside. So, we bury the shell (our skin and bones) because we don't need it anymore.

Last came a point out of her mouth so strong it brought me to tears.  "when we love J esus with our whole hearts and he dies on the cross so we don't have to, he lives in our hearts......so when people worship idols do they have idols in their hearts?"


This was the skeleton of our bedtime conversation. My heart felt every emotion tonight. I love listening to her process and being a part of her deep conversations.