From the Mouths of Our Babes

November 26, 2008

Family Worship
Tonight at our family worship time, we prayed and sang the Doxology, which Andrew loves to sing very loudly and with joy. Joey sat and listened and clapped, giggling in delight at the end. We sang Jesus Loves Me as well. Andy danced around the room with his mouth wide open. After the “Amen!” Andy said matter-of-a-factly with his hand in the air, “Now I want to sing another song about God and Jesus. It is…” He paused for a brief second “… the A,B,C Song!”

Joey’s Catechism
Then I looked at Joey (19 months today) sitting in Timothy’s arms and asked him “Joey, Who made you?” The little guy smiled and said “Od eed!” (God did!) I asked him again and he pointed up and with a cheer said “OD EED!”

Learning About Heaven
Andrew, a month shy of being four, became very upset one Sunday during a sermon about Heaven. With tears, he cried out in the service “I don’t want to go to Heaven! I don’t like Heaven! Heaven is yucky!” He was so loud and unhappy that I had to lead him out of worship into Timothy’s office to sit and calm down, telling him more about Heaven. We were shocked, saddened, and wondered what was going on. In the following days, it dawned on us that the little boy thought we had to leave right then, and was so very scared that he’d leave behind all those he loved, or be all by himself. Lost in a strange place. That idea of “heaven” is as terrifying to a three-year-old as the contemplation of hell is to adults.

Since then, we have worked harder teaching him the Gospel and telling him how wonderful Heaven is. We have said that Heaven is a special place that God has made for His children, those who Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to to live in their hearts to have Jesus be their Savior. We have described Heaven as this marvelous place, better than any fairy tale castle where we all get to go to an amazing party, bigger and fancier than any birthday party and wedding ever. We also told him of all the people he loved who would be there, Aunt Brenda, Daddy, Mommy, his brother Joey, Mom-Mom, Grandaddy, JP, Letitia, Raye-Raye, Mr. Pat, and Uncle Mark, and a few others he loves. We’d all be there at the biggest party in Heaven with God and Jesus. Then he asked about Adam, Father Abraham and Moses, King David, and Joseph. Would they be there too? Yes, we taught, we’re all a part of the family of God. We’d all be at that wonderful party and get to live with God and Jesus in Heaven, since we believed in Jesus.

Andrew has been thinking and taking it all in.

We have been praying for Julian Pilgrim for a while and Andrew knew that he was very sick and in the hospital. After learning about Mr. Pilgrim’s death Monday, I was making several phone calls. Andrew came up to me and asked what I was doing. I replied that Mr. Pilgrim had died and I was helping Daddy.

Andrew paused for a moment and then asked “Is Mr. Pilgrim in Heaven?”

I replied “Oh, yes. Jesus sent His Holy Spirit to live in his heart and he was a great believer.”

Andrew immediately began jumping up and down in joy, clapping his hands and shouting at the top of his voice a whopping “Yea!!”
“We did it!!” the little guy jubilantly exclaimed.

“No,” I smiled in reply, “Jesus did all the work. Mr. Pilgrim is in Heaven because Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to live in his heart and forgave his sins.”

Andrew burst forth in another loud wave of happy celebration and praise of Jesus. As far as he saw it, another person is coming to the great party in Heaven.

Now, that IS something to cheer about!

Reformation Day

I am glad Timothy posted these pictures from Friday for me. No, we don't celebrate Halloween. We went to a Reformation Day Celebration at our sister church. The boys had so much fun... and we did too! Timothy, Brenda and I even got to go in the inflatable with Andy, who went in so much, we lost count. Joey loved playing with the apples and water in the bobbing game.

The children could dress up as something good for the celebration. Ya'll will be really proud of me. I made their costumes! By hand! My sewing machine does not work, so I hand stitched them. Knowing that they would not wear masks nor have their faces painted, I made tiger and frog hats from foam. I re-worked an old orange and white t-shirt to fit Andy as a long vest and sewed on that white fluffy chest. From the left over material from the shirt, I hand sewed a tail and attached it to the back of the costume. Andy's black stripes on his re-made t-shirt vest were hand colored. THAT took the longest of all. Joey's dark green t-shirt was new. I recycled an old light green t-shirt to make his collar and embrodered part of it and painted "ribbit" and a frog on to it as well. In the end, they were so cute in their costumes. I think this is the first time that I have ever made a costume(s).

In the process, I learned something about myself, I love hand-sewing clothes. Who would have thought? But... who does that any more?

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