Three-Year-Old Theology

Brandon and two other colleagues started a transportation company last summer. Things have been going well for them, continually growing their business. However, as with any company, there are always a few hiccups. Yesterday, Brandon had a half day off from his normal day job and spent the afternoon at the transportation company. He called me in the afternoon to let me know that 10 of their RVs had been broken into during the night. 8 TVs stolen, 2 broken, and some other miscellaneous damage.

Fast forward a few hours to last night. I had put Brynlee to bed, and as was custom, asked her what she wanted to pray for. Her favorite answer lately has been "I don't know." So, I suggested we pray for her daddy's work. I explained that some mean people had come and taken TVs that didn't belong to them and that the police were hoping they could find them. This story and explanation seemed sufficient enough for Bryn. But, as soon as we finished praying, Brynlee said to me "Tomorrow, Daddy go to work and he fight those mean guys." Oh my. How did she ever come to that conclusion from the story I told her?! I explained that we forgive the mean guys because Jesus forgives us and we just have to pray that they will feel bad and do the right thing in returning the TVs. Again, this seemed to satisfy Brynlee. We continue to talk about Jesus' love being like Mommy and Daddy's love. Jesus loves everybody, but still is unhappy when we do something wrong and disobedient. We love her, but are still upset when she does something wrong. To this she responded, "Yes, we go cut those mean guys with a knife!"

She was still at it again this morning, insisting that Daddy had gone to work to fight the mean guys. We never even use the word "fight" in our house, so I'm assuming this was picked up from somewhere else. But apparently, we've got some work to do in the way of teaching grace, forgiveness, and resistance to fight :)