He's Going to be a Priest

Oh how proud I am of my son. On Friday, Belle won a fish at the fair. She was so proud of it and named it Nemo. Well, today it died. She was absolutely devastated! Josh, in his short life, has had to deal with a lot of death in his 7 years, he's lost 2 grandparents, a hamster, some fish, and of course the beloved Bobo Fett action figure from Star Wars (read on to hear this story). After I spent several minutes holding and trying to comfort her, Josh took charge of the situation. He put his arm around her and was try to comfort her. After about ten minutes of crying, Belle decided to paint. So they both were painting, Belle of course was still crying, the next thing I knew Josh was sitting on the chair with her. I ducked behind the corner to watch and listen This is how the conversation went:

Belle, I know you are sad about Nemo, it is ok because he is in RIP. Do you know what that means? (At this point she had stopped crying because he voice was so soothing he was rubbing her bac too). Sometime you see these stones that have RIP on them. That means rest in peace. Nemo is in peace now and he does not hurt. Do you know where peace is? It is heaven. Good guys go up to heaven. Nemo is with Grandpa and Ed(the hamster) and he does not hurt anymore. The bad guys go down, like the robbers. And that was it, no more crying.

I was so proud of him. Yesterday, we were reading about your attitude and how Jesus wants you to act as He would, when he was done talking to Belle I told him how proud I was of him and how Jesus would be proud that his actions were very Christ like. Josh knew Belle's pain and could relate and console her. He has always had this understanding of death and can speak about it with an eloquence that is odd for a child of his age. A few years ago he had the action figure that I discussed earlier. It had lost a leg or something and he was so upset, he wanted to bury it. The next thing we know he is conducting a funeral in the backyard, with me, Joel, my dad and a few neighbors. We all had to say some words, he made a cross and put flowers on the grave. My dad was very impressed with this makeshift funeral. By the end of the night he was calling Josh, Father Josh. Hmm...Fr. Josh, oh but what about the girls. I guess time will tell.