This is D, and he’s 7 (almost 8).

Even though he’s my middle child, he’s actually my first experience in having real conversations with one of my kids. E, as you all know, is autistic and took a lot longer to speak in sentences. Learning how to have a back & forth engaging conversation is still something she struggles with and she often goes off-topic or starts “stream of consciousness”-style monologuing mid conversation. D, on the other hand, is neurotypical and didn’t have those developmental issues we had with his older sister so he developed language at an expected pace and age. It blew my mind when he started really expressing his individual thoughts and asking me questions – so much so that I had a “D Said What” series on this blog for a bit (you can search and find old posts if you’re curious 😂).

Anyway, I think starting in kindergarten, D started asking some really interesting questions about God and faith. The questions almost ALWAYS happened in the car, when I’d be driving him to & from extracurriculars and we were alone together. It started with basic things… I’m totally kicking myself for not documenting/blogging those conversations when they happened because I can’t remember the specific details but it was a lot of basic gospel-minded questions. What is heaven? How do we get there? Is Jesus God? D is one of those kids who REALLY pays attention during Sunday school and AWANA and I noticed that a lot of the questions he was asking me were probably his way of processing what he’d learned at church.

About a year ago, his questions started to become a bit more … mature? I don’t know exactly how to explain it. He really wanted to know, how are we saved? Doesn’t everyone go to heaven? He asked on at least two separate occasions when we were alone in the car. And J & I really do as parents try our best to talk about Jesus and the gospel in our everyday lives but I have to say, I was SO EXCITED to actually straight-up share the gospel with him in those conversations. He hasn’t formally accepted Christ into his heart but I see the seeds being planted.

ALL THAT TO SAY – I had another super interesting conversation with D in the car this past week. We were, *surprise surprise*, alone together in the car on the way home from soccer and he was pointing out all the Halloween decorations on the houses we were passing. If you know me you know that I don’t particularly care for Halloween, and my kids know this too. D asked me why I don’t like to decorate for Halloween and I told him that it’s not something that I’m super interested in celebrating. He mentioned that I decorate for Christmas, though, and I responded that, yea I decorate for Christmas because I LOVE CHRISTMAS. It’s the best day ever! I LOVE celebrating Christmas and everything it means.

That, of course, brought up more questions about why I don’t like to celebrate Halloween and I wasn’t quite sure what to say because I didn’t want to spoil the “fun” of trick-or-treating or dressing up in costumes but also … LOL Halloween is kind of dark!? And it’s all about scary, spooky, creepy, sometimes even borderline occult-ish type stuff which I am NOT ABOUT. So I took a deep breath and told him to look around at all the Halloween decorations we’re passing. The zombies, the monsters, the skeletons, the ghosts … and I asked him, do those things remind you more of hell or of heaven?

He immediately said, hell. I said, right – because heaven is full of all the best things and perfect things, and zombies, monsters, skeletons .. those are all reminders of death. There is no death in heaven. And maybe monsters and zombies aren’t real but hell is very real and I don’t really need big reminders in my house celebrating hell or reminding me of hell because HELL IS SCARY AND MOMMY DOESN’T LIKE HELL. 😂💀

Then D asked … well, what is hell like?

So I explained it 😂 in biblical terms. I told him what the Bible says about hell and why it’s a terrible place.

HE WAS 🤯😳 SILENT. HAHAAHAHA. He had been eating a snack in the car while we were first talking and the packaging was crinkling and kind of noisy and when I told him about hell he stopped moving. The car got SUPER SILENT. I think he was shocked… because if we think about it, I think we talk a lot about heaven and what is it and how to get there with our kids, but we don’t really talk about hell do we? I know our family doesn’t. It was probably the first time he heard detailed descriptions of how the Bible describes hell.

Then he asked who goes to hell and I told him, everyone goes to hell unless they accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and get to go to heaven. Hell is the automatic place you are destined for when you are born. Which of course prompted him to ask, then how do you get to heaven? And I answered his question with a question and said – D you know this answer, think about it. How do you get to heaven? AND THIS KID QUOTED SCRIPTURE BACK TO ME.

I forget the exact verse he quoted but it was basically one that said that every one who confesses Christ goes to heaven (it might have been John 3:16? I don’t remember 😭). He literally answered my question with, “well the Bible says: (insert the verse he gave)”. I was SUPER HYPED that he used THE BIBLE to answer my question … probably too excited because pretty much right after that the conversation shifted to something totally unrelated and random and I felt a little wompwomp LOL. This is usually what happens when he & I are having deep conversations, though. He asks something profound or says something profound and then quickly moves on to something else. For me as the mom, I’m always SO EXCITED and anticipatory of where the conversation is going next but I think for D, he’s just talking to his mom in the car! 😂 So, like I said … seeds are being planted and I wanted to blog this conversation so I could have a record it. I am praying hard for him!