Monday, August 15, 2011

The Spirituality of a Four Year Old

My paper-wasting-lover four year, decided to make a prayer book today for which I was happy it wasn't going to end up a cut-up, scribbled on, stapled, taped and cut up into many more tiny pieces and left on the floor piece of garbage.  He tells me to write down what he says.  Oh, boy, I thought, this is going to be fun. What is going to come out of this kid's mouth?

He's been hearing a lot of psalms lately, so this one's harsh undertone is no indication that we talk or think this way in our day to day conversations!
God is holy for you are the one that is holy.
Throw the bad into hell
You are the holy one
Blessed God, Blessed God
It's not bad theology, but this next one was just wrong and I had to scratch it out after I realized where he was going with it:
Oh Lord, send the bad out of Hell that are good
We had to have a little talk after that one...

This next one was heavily inspired by today's feast day; the Assumption of Mary into heaven.  It cracks me up.
God, you are the holy, holy one.
You can lift heavy things
You can lift Mary up to heaven
for you are holy
 I'm not sure that Mary was that heavy, but whatever.

This next one I was very happy with after he said some bad stuff the other day, for which he received time-outs.  We talk all the time about how big God is, so he knew it was wrong when he said, This train is bigger than God! I laughed and said, No Liam, you know that's not true. God is bigger than everything. Don't say that again.  TWO seconds later: This train is bigger than God. A short timeout was issued. Afterward, he comes back to play with his very long train and shows his sister. He whispers very softly so I could barely hear: This train is bigger than God. Timeout, round two.

This time, I think he learned his lesson. He dictates to me:

Oh, how big God is.
He's bigger than the house,
He's bigger than the shelves,
He's bigger than the windows...
(many more bigger's were said too fast for me to write down)
He's bigger than a long line of trains
He's bigger than the sun
He's bigger than the clouds...
(many more bigger's I couldn't write down fast enough)
He's bigger than a longer line of trains ever
He's bigger than a pile of trucks.
Amen.


This last one was just sweet.

Oh, you are nice, nice, nice, nice, nice... (a zillion more nice's that I didn't write down)
 You are nice
You are nice
You are nice... (a hundred more that I didn't write down)
(I'm wondering where this is going and when it's going to end...)
 You are very, very, very nice
(after two more minutes of this:)
Please help me to be nice.
Amen.

awwww...my heart turned to mush and I finished the last sentence with a tiny tear in my eye.  I said we were going to send prayer book entitled, "Every Person's Prayer Book" to Grandma and Grandpa, but this one's going in the scrapbook. I'm plan on taking it out and reading it 10 years from now when I'm pulling out my hair during his teenage years. I think I'm going to have to make an extra copy for him to read then too!

8 comments:

Heidi said...

Love it!

Allison said...

What a dear.

Sarah: I "tagged" you in a lighthearted post for Tuesday. Check it out and see if you feel like participating.

blessings.

melody said...

I'm laughing so hard. What a sweet kid! God bless you both!

Jamie Jo said...

Awwww, I laughed and cried through this post. Very cute. I love writing down what littles say when they dictate, it's always wonderful.

Do you know the Veggie Tales song, "God is bigger than the boogie man"?

If not, you'd love it!!
I'm sure you can Youtube it!

Katie said...

that is so sweet!! I love it! I esp. love "God can lift heavy things"!!

Jamie Jo said...

OK, Youtube only had people and kids home videos on this song...so here's a link to listen, in case you don't know it:

http://www.myspace.com/veggietalesveggietunes/music/songs/god-is-bigger-30874076?ap=1

Anonymous said...

Hello Liam, thank you for the prayers and your precious thoughts of how big God is. at age 10 you will hate that we laughed, at age 20 you will want a copy for yourself. Oh how God laughed too, and Mary has a tear in her eye. You are so sweet, i wish we could be together more often. Love Grandma

Katie Rose said...

i love it!