The Voice of a Child

There were two separate episodes over the last few days where my children have absolutely blown me a way with their incredible innocence. The first episode happened on Sunday evening when my son and I were wrestling around and his head collided with my nose. Those of you who know what I look like would know my nose does get in the way and it did just that in this particular incident. I was standing above my son as he was moving from the floor to get up and his head nailed my nose full on. It hurt so much when his head hit my nose that I felt my eyes move back into my head. I instantly grabbed for my nose and noticed the blood which came trickling out. I did not yell nor scream at my son because it was an honest accident and these things happen. I made my way over to sink and grabbed a paper towel so not to get blood all over the house.

After a few minutes the blood subsided and my son ask me; "Daddy, can you die if you EAT blood?" I told him no you cannot die if you eat blood but if too much blood comes out of your body you can die. He went on to say; "Daddy that happened to you, you died awhile ago." This is a very interesting comment because 8 months and 11 days ago a part of me did die but he was in no way referring to this, I am not sure what he was referring to because afterall he is four years old and sometimes his thoughts can get a little confusing. I told him if I did die he wouldn't be able to see me again because I would be gone. My daughter added, "Daddy would be in Heaven". My son, daughter and I got into a conversation about God, angels and Jesus Christ. Please keep in mind my son is 4 years old and my daughter is 7 years old.

My son asked me who was that "guy" at church on the "sword"? The "sword" he was referring to is the cross and the "guy" he was referring to was Jesus Christ which I explained to my son and then my son asked me "IS THIS HEAVEN?" He wanted to know if we were in heaven right now and I thought this to be a remarkable question. I told him this was an outstanding question and one I would leave up to him to answer for himself when he got older. However, I did answer him from my perspective. I told him YES I THINK THIS IS HEAVEN because we are all together as a family and I love them so very much.

To me yes, I do believe in a Higher Power and I do believe in Heaven. My heaven is right here and right now because it doesn't get any better than my family. For years I tried to ignore what I had and looked for something better but there is NOTHING better than what has been blessed upon me by God. My family is awesome and each day is better than the last. Sometimes it does take a "significant wake-up call" to figure out what I had been looking for was right in front of me. I don't take those things for granted anymore; the love I have in my life is astonishing and my family is wonderful.

The second episode happened last night with my daughter. She came up to me and ask me; "If SHIT is a bad word?" She had heard the word at school and she is in the second grade. She told me who the person was who said this in her class and she also wanted to know what SHIT meant. I told her that yes, it is a bad word and it is called profanity. I briefly explained what profanity was and told her we try to use other words not profane words because these words are disrespectful and bad. I also explained to her that SHIT is another word for poop. I told her we prefer to say poop because it is more respectful.

I didn't fly off the handle when she asked me these questions and I was so impressed she came to me with these questions. Her main concern was with the definition of the word she really wanted to know what it meant. I think I did a good job explaining the word and explaining profane words and to not to use those words. Hopefully, she will continue to come home and keep asking these questions of my wife and me.

Yes, she is only in the second grade and children do grow up so fast. I cannot control what others say around my daughter I can only give her the tools to hopefully make the right choices later on in life. As long as we continue the open communication and she is not afraid to ask us these questions I know my daughter will do great because she is such a sweet child and my love for her is endless.