Kids say the darndest things

As a child grows, everyday brings new adventures and discoveries and challenges. Some of those days the adventures are slightly annoying but still hilarious. Like when your little one finds her way into the bathroom momentarily left unguarded and she discovers the glorious fun of a roll of toilet paper. Some days bring the challenge of comforting a little girl coping through grieving the loss of a goldfish. The effort not to laugh at your child's tantrum. Every parent I imagine has to endure the episode where the little one discovers and is compelled to share with company the wonderment that is their private parts. There are day you can't help but shake your head and laugh and wonder, "What have I gotten myself into?"

I'm still shaking my head right now.

Like some 14% of the U.S. population, Lisa and I consider ourselves non-religious. I've got nothing against religious folks, if fact some of my best friends are religious. Really. Personally I just don't get the whole "Higher Power" stuff. Not a fan of watermelon either, another oddball personal preference of mine. I'm interested in the topic (religion, that is) and curious how it is people come to believe the things they do and I do try to be respectful of others and their wacky heartfelt beliefs. For most of my adult life, it just hasn't been much of an issue.

This evening Helena is playing over at a neighbor’s house...
Can I stop now or should I walk you through the rest?
Okay, I'll go on but you realize taking joy hearing about a four year old stepping into a moral quagmire is just wrong on so many levels. If you're laughing you are not a very good person, you know that.

Helena and her friend are in his house while Lisa and the boy's mother are outside chatting and watching Megan and her little friend. Helena's friend C. (I'll protect the names of the innocent) comes outside to inform his mom of the important news that God and Jesus are not in fact real.

For those who are visiting by the page, let me just remind you we live in the South.

"Where did you hear that C.” asks the neighbor.
"Probably from Helena." Lisa answers matter of factly.
"They are real C." the neighbor reassures and he runs back inside.

Outside the conversation returns to the fact that neither I nor C. Dad can smell the post asparagus urine odor but it isn't long before Lisa has to return home with the girls and the neighbors have to perform some sort of reconsecration ceremony.

Lest you get the impression that while many kids are saying their evening prayers, we're indoctrinating our daughters to proclaim at every corner "There is no god!", let your hearts not be troubled. The few times the conversation has comes up we've tried to answer Helena questions as openly as we could.
Grammie talks about going to church: "What's church Mama?"
"Church is a place where people go to talk and listen and think and learn about God."

At this point you'd expect a next question, right? What's God? Right? No a year ago we got Helena a book called The Children's Book of Myths and Legends full of stories and tales about Zeus, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Thor and Icarus. So she has an idea to go along with the word God, it's just not one the general public is too comfortable with.

Now we've tried to explain to Helena that what Mama and Papa think and believe aren't what everyone else think and believe. And that's okay. In fact we've told Helena that she ought to, when she's older consider those sorts of things and decide for herself what she thinks. We've tried to convey the message she can believe what she believes and her friends can believe what they believe. We are dealing with a four year old though.
So what's a parent to do? I'm not ashamed of my beliefs or lack there of and I think it would be a disservice to my children to pretend to be something I wasn't just to avoid touchy conversations around adults. I don't want my kids growing up learning to keep quiet if they fit in with the rest of the crowd. I don't want them to conform for the sake of conforming but neither do I want them to go out of their way shove their differences in everyone’s faces. Oh, what have we gotten our selves into? And neither is even in school yet!

So I shake my head and wonder what adventures tomorrow will bring.