A Child’s Musing

So the other day my oldest daughter Hailey tells me that she wants to sit with my wife and I, and have a conversation about something that has been on her mind. Her tone and posture told me that this was something the she had put a considerable amount of thought into. Hailey is unusually in tune with her feelings about things, and even though she is not confrontational, when she is ready to ask someone to stop doing something, or to do something, she knows exactly how she feels about it, and why the person she is telling should care about her feelings. I say she is unusually in tune because I have never met a kid her age that communicates their feelings that way. She is also very insightful about others. She doesn’t just take their actions at face value, she thinks about why they may be doing or saying something.

To give an example that I believe I have shared before, she asked if the Orthodox veneration of icons constitutes a breaking of the Second Commandment. She asked it without any prompting from anyone else. She asks a lot of questions about the Orthodox Church. I am glad she is a thinker.

Needless to say, I was a bit nervous about the conversation. She is getting to the age when, “You’ll understand when you’re older” is not a sufficient answer to questions about life. Could this end up being “The Talk”? I wasn’t quite ready, but I think my wife and I would make it through it okay.

Unfortunately, it was almost a week before we could have this talk. When she sat us down, she told us that she had been thinking about how the world is kind of like a fairy tale. She started off with the once upon a time being like the beginning (Genesis I’m guessing). Then there is Good and Evil. God is of course good, and Satan is evil. In the end, just like in fairy tales, God will win, and Satan will be cast out. There is a kind of “magic” at work around us all the time (God’s hand). That was it. She just wanted to share her musings with us.

I found it quite precious. To see that she is beginning to see how something she learns about is like “real life” makes me realize she is growing up. She is starting to make the connection between her reflections, and their application to herself and situations. This is where I think the Orthodox Church will be a great teacher. Not only that, but the Holy Mysteries will be the illumination, edification and inspiration of her life. Right now she is in a bit of internal conflict about Orthodoxy, because of the “fun” and friends she has in the Presbyterian Church. She makes some connections between what she sees and hears in Orthodox services, but her emotions are torn. For this conflict I am in prayer for her daily, and would ask that anyone who reads remember her in your prayers. She has chosen St Tatiana of Rome for her patron saint (should she become Orthodox), so I beseech her intercessions for Hailey.

The best part about all this, is the fact that all Hailey’s reflections and musing are still infused with awe and wonder. I find that I actually learn a lot from her and her sisters. God grant me such wonder in my reflections.