Brian joined the ranks of bloggers and posted this story about he and Carter. Enjoy...
Have you ever had a 20 minute conversation with your child and then sat back and wondered how on earth you got there...????
The other night, I came out of the girls' room from telling them goodnight. Carter asked me to come into his room. He said that he was having a hard time going to sleep. I asked him why. He said that he kept having scary thoughts in his mind. He had a nightmare the night before so he was thinking about that. We pick up the conversation from there...
Brian -"Why don't you think about good things? You could say a prayer."
Carter - "I have already done that."
Brian - "Let's sing a song. We could sing Nephi's courage. We could think good thoughts like having courage. Remember the song..'Nephi was courageous, this was his reply."
Carter - "Daddy, what does courageous mean?"
Brian - "Well, when we are courageous, it means we are brave. Even though we may be scared of something, we don't let our fear keep us from doing it. Nephi was brave. Do you remember what Nephi did to have courage?"
Carter - "He cut off some guys head and stole his plates..."
Awkward silence as Brian holds back his laughter and tries to think of how to save this conversation
Brian - "Well....yes, he did do that.....but he was commanded by Heavenly Father to get the brass plates. Nephi had courage to go and get the plates from Laban, even though it might be scary. Do you think Nephi was scared?"
Carter - "yes"
Brian - "But Nephi had courage and Heavenly Father provided a way for Nephi to get the plates."
Carter - "By killing Laban?"
Brian - "Ummmm......yes.....but...."
Brian - "Laban was a wicked person. Nephi tried to get the plates in other ways but couldn't. So, Heavenly Father delivered him to Nephi. Nephi didn't want to kill him. But he was told he needed to in order to get the plates to teach his family the scriptures."
Carter - "Heavenly Father only wants us to kill bad people?"
Brian - "Well, Nephi was a prophet. He spoke to God face to face. God asked him to do something hard to help his people. We're not prophets, God has asked us not to kill people..."
For the next 15 minutes, we cover everything from prophets to soldiers. We talk about armies and protecting our families. Carter asks more questions, and I try to dig myself out of the hole I seem to keep stepping into.
I finally leave my boy and wonder how it is that 20 minutes ago my son was worried about bad dreams and I've now lectured my son on why: we're not prophets who kill wicked people; why prophets today don't "knock people off" for scriptures; how soldiers protect us, sometimes by force; why daddy isn't a soldier but would hurt someone to protect his family; whether or not daddy could beat Laban in a fight; and why Nephi isn't a Jedi Knight (even though he can shock people).
And oh yeah.....Nephi was courageous because he cut off some guys head and stole his plates. And I was worried that he wasn't learning anything from our family scripture study.
6 comments:
Oh my, Carter always makes me laugh. Good to know he's picking up something he's taught!!!
SOOOOOO Cute. That kid is sharp - there is no deterring him when he is on a certain track is there? I just love your stories.
Brian should consider himself lucky. I once found myself in a conversation with (a then very young Tristan) who had asked me why Sonia and I did not have kids. I had replied that Sonia and I weren't in a rush to have kids because Sonia wasn't excited about "having" a baby. Of course he asked me why and I replied "because the baby has to come out." I should have seen this one coming because the next question was "Where does the baby come out from?" I tried to convince him that that was a conversation to have with his parents, but he was too persistent. Finally he asked, "Does it just come out a hole in the mom's leg or something?" To which I said "yeah...something like that. Let's just leave it there."
Carter is a smart little boy! What a sweet story!
What a bright little boy. I never thought of Nephi stealing the plates. I always thought that they belonged to him and he was just getting them back. I love stories about Carter. Give him a hug from Grandma and hope that he doesn't have those scary thoughts too often.
That is soooo funny. I had to laugh. Right on. You are right, they do learn something in those studies.
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