Jacen and I were saying prayers together before bed last night. He's learning the Lord's Prayer (He calls it "The Jesus Prayer"), so I said every line and let him repeat it after me. Teaching him the Lord's Prayer has brought up some interesting discussions. The very first time we went through the prayer with him, he got totally sidetracked on the "lead us not into temptation" part. He has a Larry Boy movie where the Bad Apple weaves webs of temptation, and when the characters fall for their temptation, they get totally stuck. So when he heard the word "temptation", he stopped thinking about praying, and had to tell us all the story of Larry Boy getting caught in a web of chocolate temptation. That happened the next couple times we said the prayer as well--he even started yelling about Larry Boy in church one time as the congregation said the Lord's Prayer together. But the next time I watched Larry Boy with him, he was able to tell me about the prayer, and that we don't want to be led into temptation, because otherwise we get stuck doing things we shouldn't do over and over again. Last night, we were saying the prayer again, and when we finished, he asked me what "daily bread" was. So I asked him what he thought that meant. First he said, "I don't know", but when I pushed him a little, he said, "I think it's like, when I get big like Daddy, then I'll get a piece of bread and a little cup of juice at church. That's the bread that Jesus gives us." I was surprised, and a little bit impressed by his answer, becuase it showed a lot more understanding than I would have expected from him. So I told him he was right, but that Jesus also gives us all of the food we eat every day, and that in the prayer they say bread to mean all of the food we get every day. He seemed happy with that answer, and went to bed. This morning, though, I gave him a PBJ for breakfast, and he said to me, "Jesus gave us this sandwich, right, Mommy?"
Right, Jacen. That's exactly right.
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