Thursday, February 16, 2012

Addicted to God

So, Whitney Houston died last week. I definitely loved some of her music but wasn't overly emotional over her passing. But then a couple days later I thought it would be appropriate to listen to a couple of songs, you know, pay my respects so to speak. Though, is it really paying your respects when you're listening to "I wanna dance with somebody, I wanna feel the heat with somebody"? Probably not. I let the girls listen to "I will always love you" and they both liked it. I told them she died. Claire's response was "she died? Oh." Sophie, on the other hand had a brain full of questions for me. Is it normal for a 4 year old to be so inquisitive? I really can't see Claire like that in 2 years, no offense to her, but anyhow. Here's kind of how our conversation went, over folding laundry together. S: why did she die? Me: Well, she had an addiction to drugs and alcohol. S: What's an addiction? What's alcohol? Me: An addiction is when you try to make yourself happy with anything other than God. Alcohol is something people drink, like wine or beer (yes, she knows what those are) but they drink too much to try to make themselves happy. One glass of wine is ok, but having 10 is bad. and it's bad for your body. S: (getting a little emotional already) Can kids be addicted, can anybody be addicted? Me: Well, usually it happens when people are older S: are you going to be addicted when you're older (pretty upset by now) Me: No, no! By God's grace mommy and daddy will not be addicted to anything. Thankfully, we know and love God and want to please him with our lives, and He will help us to stay that way. S: (crying now) I'm only addicted to God! And then we got on the subject of hope, and what's hope? And I was trying to explain how we should hope in God, and not in say...getting a package. You can be excited about a package and thankful if you get one, but you don't want to put your hope in getting a package. (She was expecting some valentines packages that day). She said ok, I won't put my hope in a package, well maybe just a tiny little bit. :) It was all precious, and made me think of 1 Peter 3:15 that says "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect" You certainly never know when a conversation about a pop star's death will lead to an opprtunity to teach about life, sin and God!

4 comments:

Janelle Spence said...

I've had similar conversations with both Noelle and Sadie.
This week I learned that my very first boss died (I was 15 when I started working for her at a produce market0. She was a nice lady and I was sad to hear about her death. When Sadie asked who died, I told her it was someone I worked for a long time ago. Her next question was "Did she go to heaven or hell?"
That thought hadn't entered my mind, but I had to answer honestly that, unless something changed in the last 15 years, I'm pretty sure she went to hell. It was very sobering. Kids really make you think!

melissa said...

Wait. It's not okay to drink ten glasses of wine? Drat.

Paulina said...

Uh oh Melissa, should we send some intervention your way? :)

Rachael Neal said...

Ha ha! Melissa, I had the same thought. :) Always kidding...

Great convo...thanks for sharing!