At times I post interesting spiritual conversations I have had with my kids. I post these for interest because I think they are precious and also because I hope they encourage more spiritual conversations among families. Today, I’m again sharing from my 4-year-old. (See also here and here for previous posts related to my daughter.)
Knowing that younger children often remember things more than older children, I had asked my daughter earlier if she remembered anything from before she was born. I hadn’t really gotten any response until one particular day when she had just turned 4 and I was in the kitchen. I playfully scooped her up in my arms and asked her if she remembered being a baby, if she remembered me holding her in my arms. She said she remembered being in my tummy....she was squished.... "I remembered that I was crying in there because it was too squishy in there". It’s true, she was my biggest baby at 9 lb and even skipped the skinny ‘newborn look’. I asked her if she remembered anything else...and she said, "It was like I saw God in there and things like that". At that point of course I went straight to the computer to write it down...however further questions didn't seem to go anywhere...perhaps I interrupted it. However, I believe her sharing was real. While writing it down, my 10 year old son said to me that she's actually told him about being squished in there making her cry a few times already – now he tells me! We know many young children remember being in the womb or even being in heaven before with God.
On another occasion, my 4-year-old got out a game from the shelf which requires more than 2 players, explaining to me, “I'm playing it with my guar(d)ian angel.” To which I responded, "That sounds perfect!" I actually overheard her taking turns with her guardian angel.
Just recently, I asked my 4-year-old to go and get something for me. When I was done with the item, I asked if she wanted to put it away for me or not. I was surprised when she responded with, "Hmm, do I want to get more good karma or not?" It was so cute…and I hadn’t thought she’d heard us talking about karma that much!
And finally, on our walk back from picking some wonderful wildflowers, my 4-year-old said her flowers were talking. I asked her what they were saying but she wasn't sure. She said she had to hold the flowers up to her ear to hear them. I said maybe they were saying I love you Aurora, but she thought they were trying to speak. Who knows if she was just hearing the rustling in the breeze or if she is actually hearing them talk to her - after all, some have said the flowers in heaven actually talked to them. A long time ago, I would have chuckled and said that's silly, flowers can't talk. Now I try to allow my children whatever spiritual experience they may be having. After all, it seems that half the problem with us adults is that we don’t believe in these other worlds that are so real to children and yet at times so intangible to us.
Do you have anything to share on talking with younger children about spiritual things?