Theology according to Ian

It's no mystery that children understand God more than adults because of their innocence and their unawareness of all the crap that goes on in the world. Unfortunately, most of us lose that innocent and simple knowledge of Christ and who He really is to us. It's a good thing that those little ones can teach us about that mystery in the simple things they do.

For example, when our kids were really small, they would see Father Jeremy, or any priests, during Mass in their vestments and point at them & say, "Jesus!"

Last night, Father came over to our house for Teen Talk and Ian was still awake so Father had a joy-filled time watching his godson run back and forth across the room kicking the ball. Ian equally loves to show off his talents as well. As Ian started to wear down, I asked him if he wanted to get a book to read to help him settle in. He ran to the books and came back with a book for Father to read...it was a children's bible...how fitting!

So as they looked at the book, Ian kept paging towards the back like he wanted to get through the book, but as they got toward the end, there were pictures of Jesus. He became focused on picture after picture of Jesus and pointed at them with his little finger & said, you guessed it, "J'sus", (he can't say the "e's" yet, let alone many other words yet, but he's getting there). Now here's the part that brings me to tears. Suddenly he turns around and with his finger points at Father and says, "J'sus".

The look on Father's face was priceless as he exclaimed, "Did you hear that?! Did you hear what he said?" (I did hear it, but until Father said it, I didn't think he actually said it.) "Did he say 'Jesus'?" I questioned. And it was at that moment that the tears welled up in my eyes as Father said, "You understand the mystery of the priesthood more than I do, Little One, and I'm a priest!"

I couldn't help but feel as though God had blessed us in that moment and let us experience the beauty and gift of what it is to be truly childlike in love and faith with our Creator. I am so excited to see what He has planned for the lives of these little ones He so graciously allowed into our lives to care for and raise to reflect His Goodness and Glory!

Splish, splash!

It seems that "SuzyCat" is becoming more adventurous and curious. This morning, Jason got up early to go work out and went into the bathroom to do his morning duty. As he stood there & started to pee, he heard the cat running from the kitchen. She proceeded to run right into the bathroom and came running up right between his legs and jumped, full speed, right into the toilet. Yes! while he was peeing! She quickly jumped out onto the bathroom rug...and again, yes! she was full of pee water.

Jason had to grab her, (and for you men, yes, he did stop mid-stream, and I know that's a deed worthy of praise right there!), and tossed her into the tub so she wouldn't continue to shake pee water around the bathroom and the house. He then had to give her a bath, something I don't think he's ever had to do before & something he said she didn't really like.

All praises to Jason for what he had to do this morning because of the darn cat! The good news is the cat is clean and so is the bathroom floor. I was also able to convince him to clean the toilet while he was on his knees in the bathroom & had cleaning products in his hands, so that's another plus to my day! Thank you, Jason & maybe I should thank "SuzyCat" for "helping" with the chores and giving us something to laugh at and blog about today!

Short & sweet

The other day when we were leaving church, our 3 year-old niece, Elena, was walking with us toward her van & asked us, "Did you walk to church?" What's funny is that they were parked in front of our house. What's funnier is that we live right across the street from the church.

Observations

When the kids spent the weekend with Jason's parents while we were on our diaconate retreat, they had a great time getting one-on-one time with just Grandma & Grandpa, something that doesn't happen very often for them. So gradually, we are hearing stories of things that happened that weekend. Here's one of our favorites...I think this is how it went.

Faith and Grandpa are in the kitchen...
Faith: Grandpa, why do your pants always look like that?
Grandpa: Like what, Faith?
Faith: Like you pooped in them!

If you know what Jim's pants look like, especially the farm pants, then you are probably rolling off your chair. If you don't know, then you'll just have to use your imagination. I laugh envisioning little Faith standing there staring at dad's rear end and wondering why his pants are so baggy and why it perplexes her little mind so much.

Brains matter

Summer is officially over for us & the 3 older kids have started school! AJ is in 2nd grade, Laney is in 1st grade and Faith is in preschool for 2 full days and 1 half day.

All are having a great time & for the most part being back on a schedule of using their brains. Today, we had to challenge them even more to use their brains, or the cat is going bye-bye. She has become the source of fighting, arguements and chaos when it comes to making everyone happy with their "time" with the cat. As much as we love having her, she has been a dividing factor rather than bringing about unity.

So, they have been warned and from here on out, it will become their decision as to whether the cat stays or goes based on their behaviors. I hope they succeed, because I like this cat!