Out of the mouths of babes (Emma's spiritual insights)

I learn so much from hearing questions and comments the children make when we talk about the scriptures and other spiritual matters. At night after family prayer we have been choosing one picture from the church's art set and reading the story about that particular scriptural event. The other night I was reading about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego being put in the fiery furnace because they refused to obey the King and bow down to the idol. Emma was very interested in all the details and had lots of questions. When I was tucking her in she still wanted to know what happened to people who did bow down to the idol, did the King make them go into the fire too etc, etc. Finally she said very seriously, "Mom, would the king have made Sierra bow down, because I think she would have done it". Sierra loves to pray, and is the best one in our family about actually kneeling and folding her arms during prayer. When we call "it's prayer time" she comes running in and folds her arm and bows down. Emma was very worried that if a King called for her to come bow down, she would do it, even if there was a big old idol in front of her.

Our picture story last night was about Joseph and Potipher's wife. They love picking this story for some reason. I modify it to be a little more "family friendly", but they still love the part that Potpher's wife dramatically says "kiss me, kiss me, Joseph" - that's my own interpratation. At the end I wanted to have a little talk about how there are some situations that people won't respect you just saying "no" and you literally may need to just "run away" or get out of the situation instead of trying to reason with people. I told them that they could always call mom or dad and we would always come pick them up if they ever felt like they needed to get out of a situation etc, etc. Emma said, "mom, if I go to a Hannah Montana party, and they say you have to shake your booty, I will call you right away".


Yesterday Emma's sunbeam teacher got sick and had to leave early. Emma kept asking me who would teach her. I went through a whole list of options that didn't seem to work out for her. Finally I suggested she go be the assistant in the nursery and play with Sierra and Olivia. That seemed a pretty acceptable option for her. Later I asked her about the experience and asked what kind of snacks they had. She said they offered her some, but she kept saying, "no, thank you." She explained that she had decided to fast during nursery today. Granted, it was fast Sundayl.