I need to stop posting stuff at 2 am. That last "Boy" post was rather discombobulated. And see how I can also use bigger words when I'm not wiped out?
But that's not what I wanted to talk about today. This is one of those posts that one or two of you may find mildly interesting, but mostly I'm blogging it so that I can remember it later. This all went down only 5 hours ago and already I'm starting to forget it.
Tonight Josh asked me if I knew that Satan was once an angel. This threw me off for a second because I've never taught him about Satan and I don't think Sunday school has gotten there either. I guess they learned about him in chapel at school today. Have I been remiss, I wonder? He knows all his Bible stories, he knows about sin, he knows about his own (and others) need for Savior, he knows that Jesus died on the cross for our sins even though He was sinless, and He's prayed to ask God to be His Savior and forgive him for his sins. But I never brought up Satan, hell, eternal fire, etc. We just talked about how sin caused separation from God. I guess for a while I thought he was too young and then later I just didn't teach it.
So it's good that he's getting so much Biblical training at school. It's not just in chapel or Bible time; they are taught everything from a Biblical perspective. It's nice to see our decision to send him to an (insanely expensive) Christian school has resulted in him learning something I haven't gotten to yet!
Now that I'm really thinking on it, I knew all about hell when I was his age. Our church was really old-school, and fire and brimstone was a common topic! Anyway, I got saved at age 4, for what I considered a very smart reason. I seem to remember thinking that any logical person would of course choose Jesus over hell. Like, duh. Why, why, why would somebody choose hell? Hellooooo. (If you can't tell or didn't know, I was a very pragmatic, slightly obnoxious child.)
At any rate, I told Josh yes, I knew that Satan used to be an angel. We talked about Satan for a little bit, focusing on how Satan chose to disobey God and, according to Josh, "God KICKED him OUT of heaven." Yes, true. Then we moved on to discussing hell, which as far as I knew he didn't know too much about. Asked to describe hell, he told me "That's where it's fire." Alrighty, I guess they covered the basics there too.
Here's where the conversation got personal.
Oh, I should stop here and mention that all this was going on while I was giving the boys a bubble bath. So while we were talking, Josh was running troughs through the bubbles with a toy jet ski and Daniel was smearing everything in sight (including my arms, various parts of Josh, the sides of the tub, and his own little belly, nose, and toes) with clouds of little foamy bubbles.
Hell, I explained to Josh, was created for Satan and the other angels who didn't want to obey God. I also added that people go there too, if they choose to. "But not us," he said.
"No, not you because you chose to love Jesus and ask Him to come into your heart and forgive you for your sins. And you chose to go to heaven. Remember?" He was already nodding and saying "Yes" before I got halfway through the sentence. "Yes, I'm going to heaven," he said. Then.
"Mom, WHAT ABOUT DANIEL???"
Isn't he great? I love that he was so concerned about his brother, especially since at that particular moment, that brother was flinging bubbles at Josh's face and yelling "Aaaaaaaaaah" in response to the protective hug Josh had just bestowed upon him.
Anyway, we talked a little more about how when Daniel is older he gets to choose too and as his family it's up to us to teach him about God and help him make good choices, etc. But I found the whole conversation bittersweet. I'm so thankful that Josh has chosen to follow Christ, but I'm reminded that my stubborn, hard-headed littlest boy still has a lot to learn.
I'm so looking forward to seeing the young men my boys will someday be, and I hope & pray that Daniel will also be saved at a young age and both boys will be active followers of Christ.
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