I was in a panic. Who would say that?? I'm thinkin' what did we do wrong? We talk about God and Jesus all the time...good things. We talk to Him, tell Him we love Him.
So one day riding in the car ( that seems to be when all the good topics come up), Madelyn and I were talking about Great Grandma G, and that she will be in heaven because she loved Jesus. I kept going about the details of heaven from the discriptions in the Bible.
What a COOL place! Doesn't everyone wanna go?!
I kept looking back in the rear view mirror, excited to see the face of pure joy and bliss on my firstborn. As I kept talking about the people in the Bible that would be there too, I noticed there was NO sign of happiness at ALL. Strange, surely this is appealing to her.
Finally I asked her...Madelyn what do think? Would you like to have Jesus in your heart? He loves you and wants you to be with him someday.
Before I could go on she firmly and loudly said " I DON'T WANNA GO TO HEAVEN!!!"
I about drove off the side of the road! There isn't a manual for this.
"If child answers "no way, not interested" then proceed to section C for further guidence"
Nope, no handbook on this one.
I didn't know how to repsond. I could tell she was getting more upset, I needed to come up with a brilliant response quickly.
All kinds of thought were running through my head...MY child is REJECTING Jesus??? HELP!!
What in the world have we done???
So I asked her...."Madelyn, WHY don't you want to go to heaven???" Really not sure what the answer would be...
"Momma, I like it HERE"
*********FAST FORWARD to TODAY***********
Another interesting conversation in the car with Logan...with Easter right around the corner, we was showing me a craft from school about the empty tomb. So I asked him..."Where is Jesus, he's not in there?" Logan quickly said, "He's in heaven" This response had a little untertone of "DUHHH MOM" to it.
So I asked him" Is there anywhere else that He lives?" Very sweetly this time he says "In my heart Momma".
We talked about why He wants to be in your heart, why He loves you so much and why He wants to have you come into Heaven and be with Him forever when it is time.
I realized I needed to choose my words carefully. He confirmed that with "But I don't wanna go NOW!"
Ok, so my kids seem to be happy *here*....that's good :)
Logan ~ 5 years old
Madelyn when she was about 4 years old. I love her smile...her eyes dissappear :)
1 comment:
Amber...we have dealt with and are dealing with the SAME thing here...for some reason, they equate asking Jesus to save you with "He's going to make me die and go to heaven immediately, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars AND, do NOT see Mommy & Daddy for a longggggg time!"
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