Kaden and I were in the car last night and he started talking about being together forever. He started asking me a lot of questions that blew me away that a 4 year old would ask. I think it all stemmed back to this morning when we woke up to find one of our little goldfish down at the bottom of the tank. (good bye little goldfish)
Don't feel too bad for my kids. They didn't seem to mind so much. Avery called Brian and said, "Shisshee die, I go store, more shisshee". Kaden didn't mind so much either, but I think it did spark a conversation later in the day.
So we are driving and Kaden asks, "Mom, when are we going to Heaven?". I proceeded to tell him that we don't know when it's our time to die. He then started asking a series of questions, that for a mom... got really hard to answer. Some of his questions were these:
"Mom, when are we going to heaven?"
"I DON'T KNOW, BUD, WE ALL DIE AT DIFFERENT TIMES"
"But how old are you when you die?"
"Will we go to heaven at the same time"
"PROBABLY NOT KADE, IF MOMMY GOES TO HEAVEN FIRST, THEN YOU WILL WOULD COME TO HEAVEN LATER"
"Who would watch me?" (me thinking he's in Heaven, I said "Heavenly Father would take care of you"
"No, mom, if you were in heaven and Daddy had to go to work, would would be here with me? (Ahhh, OK, tears start swelling at this point and getting a little nervous why we are talking about this... he better not have kid intuition or something)
"WELL, BUD, THERE WOULD BE LOTS OF PEOPLE THAT WOULD TAKE CARE OF YOU. YOUR GRANDPARENTS, YOUR AUNTS & UNCLES, EVEN MOMMIES FRIENDS WOULD WATCH YOU"
"When would you come back?"
" I WOULDN'T COME BACK. I'D WAIT UP IN HEAVEN UNTIL YOU GOT THERE"
"Will we all be together?"
"WE SURE WILL BUDDY." (Then I was able to talk about the temple and how families are forever... you know.. take advantage of the teaching moment and all)
It was a touching conversation with your son. One's that depth far exceeded my expectations coming from a little 4 year old. A mix of emotions flooded my mind as I reflected back on the conversation I had just been apart of. My little guy is growing up so quickly. He is capable of understanding things that are so hard for us as adults to even talk about. I am so grateful I had the answers for him. I feel incredibly blessed to KNOW that my family WILL be together after we all die. That this earth life isn't the end. It would have broken my heart if I had to tell him something different. It was a small testimony builder to me to be able to explain to my son a simple truth the gospel brings us. I hope I have more of these tender, thoughtful moments as my kids grow up.
