Sunday, December 23, 2012

The Mind of a 5 Year Old

Age 5 is an amazing time in the mind of a child. I remember it being a time of deep questions with all the kids.  Sort of like their minds and hearts deepen, but their literal brains just cannot quite categorize it all.  One of my favorite Noah stories came when he was 5.

Riding in the back of the car he asked me, "Mom, why do we have to bow our heads when we pray?"  I was not totally engaged so I threw out the standard, "it is a sign of respect."  Then he sounded a bit distressed and said, "but I don't want to bow my head when I pray.  Do I HAVE to?"  I answered him with a question.  Why don't you want to bow your head?  His answer: "I hate looking at the devil when I am talking to God."  It came out with such emotion like it had been a struggle for a long time.  I loved it.  The literal side of being 5 mixed with the important and deeper side of growing up.

Ayden Jane has been coming up with some of these lately as well.  Here are a couple.

AJ: Is God big or small?
Me:  What do you mean?
AJ:  Well, He has to be small to be inside my heart, but He has to be big to be everywhere.  So is He big or small?

How did Jesus save us when he was a baby?  Babies can't do anything!

Sadly, the other thing Ayden Jane and Noah have in common is night mares.  Noah had trouble with recurring ones that would last a couple of weeks.  There was no sleeping those couple of weeks....  Ayden Jane's don't seem to be as bad, but she has started telling her brain not to have bad dreams and asking us to help her ask Jesus for good dreams.  You can tell she is genuinely frightened.  It was hard when Noah was little to watch him be honestly afraid to sleep and it is no better now.  Just one of those things a parent cannot fix.

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