"Is Your Grandpa In Heaven?"

We didn't have the best morning on Saturday. Orin had a little bit of an emotional breakdown. Saturday night he was punished from something he really wanted to do Sunday because he wouldn't stop playing in bed and go to sleep. So he wasn't happy. It's hard when we have a morning like this. I can sometimes allow Satan give me doubt in my parenting and worry creeps in instead of remembering that God is the head of this family and I have to trust him totally with my kids growth. So when we have conversations like the one we did at lunch, I am so encouraged. I can't remember everything exactly word for word, so I'm trying to relay it as closely as I can.

Orin: Mommy, who is your sister.
Me: Who do you think it is?
Orin: Aunt Emily.
Me: Yep. And I have 4 brothers! Can you imagine having 4 brothers? I know daddy can't imagine if you had 4 brothers!
Orin:Daddy, who is your grandma?
Damien: Gammie
This went on for a while. He knows these answers but sometimes he like to have the conversation for fun.
Orin: Daddy, who's your Grandpa?
Damien: Grandpa John. But you've never met him.
Me: Grandpa John died before you were born.
Orin: Is Grandpa John in heaven?
(Ok, this is when you sort of freeze and try to think of the best thing to say as quickly as possible. We don't know if Grandpa John is in heaven or not (only God knows) so we didn't think we could say yes to his question without any doubt. )
Me:Well, we don't know. If he loved Jesus then he is in heaven, but if not then he's not in heaven.
Orin: Will I go to heaven when I die?
Us: Well, if you love Jesus and worship him and pray to him and tell him you love him and want to serve him them you'll go to heaven.

I was still talking but he just started spontaneously praying: "Dear Jesus, I love you so much. Please let me love you and worship you and follow you. Please let me go to heaven. In Jesus name, Amen." (that's the gist of it. I wish I had it on video because his was so much sweeter.)

Orin: What's worship?
Us: Well, it's doing things like praying to Jesus and singing songs to him and being kind to people. Doing things like sharing with your brother, obeying mommy and daddy, telling other people about Jesus, helping people who don't have food or clothes or mommy's and daddy's.
Orin: I want to do those things so I can go to heaven. (Then he breaks out singing "1,2,3, Jesus Loves Me" - his favorite song from his preschool.)
Us: If we worship Jesus by doing those things we said before, then you will be truly happy. Even though it's hard sometimes, it will make us happier than anything else could.
Orin: You mean like a bomb going off in a swimming pool?
Us: Uh, sure, if that would make you very happy, then yes.
Orin: Daddy, what's a bomb?

LOL, so that was the end of the spiritual conversation. But it's so exciting that he's curious about God and wants to learn more. It's encouraging to us to know that hopefully a little of what we've been teaching him for so long is slowly sinking in and he's starting to understand it. It's so hard to explain salvation to kids in a way that they understand but is still meaningful and accurate.

Orin and Damien stayed in the kitchen talking for at least 20 minutes. Orin is obsessed with worry that our house will catch on fire. Damien was trying to convince him that it will probably never happen. Orin keeps asking questions like: "Did your house ever catch on fire, daddy?" and "What does it means when you say it will "never" happen?" and "What will happen to me if I catch on fire." He has totally gotten to the "question" stage. It's a lot of fun.