This morning, as the girls and I were on our way to Grandma’s house, Elizabeth asked me, “Mom, why did the bad people put Jesus on the cross and kill him?”
Uhh…
I felt like those Twix commercials: “Need a moment?” I had just taken a bite of a granola bar so I used that moment to turn off the radio and squelch my urge to brush off her question with “I don’t know.” How do I distill all those complicated facts into something that a four-year-old would understand?
I told her that Jesus was good and kind and helped people. That the “bad men” were jealous of him and wanted to get rid of him. I could tell that she still didn’t get it. How can an innocent little girl understand the feelings of murderers?
I told her that it was hard for her to understand right now because she didn’t know any “bad men.” Then she said, “Yes, I do! The Lamanites!” Yeah, but had she ever met any Lamanites? “No…Hey, Mom! Those poles look like crosses! Just like Jesus had.” And just like that the discussion was over. But it got me thinking.
We usually dumb things down in Primary and I used to think that was because the kids weren’t very smart. But really, it’s because they’re too innocent (well, the Junior Primary anyway) to understand why some people do such terrible things. Sure, they might not like that kid at the playground, but never enough to kill him. No wonder why we’re told to be like little children.
3 comments:
Yikes, that's a scary question. I think you did an excellent job with your answer. It's hard trying to shield your innocent little ones from the yucky things out there.
My goodness what do you say to that? Sometimes Sophie's "why" questions can be hard to answer too. It's hard because you don't want to introduce those concepts to your sweet little girl, they'll get plenty of it later.
Your story is good enough to send into The Friend or to The ensign. Your answer was perfect and will make everyone think about how to be more like the little children. You are amazing.
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