Skip to main content

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Our Civic was stolen from our driveway over the weekend. Riley* was completely enthralled with the police man that came to file the report. Both boys kept saying the police man will bring the car back.
As we knelt down to say prayers, I told Riley we can ask Heavenly Father to help us find the car. His response…
“He can’t help us Mom!! Heavenly Father isn’t a police man!”
A wonderful lesson on prayer and God’s love followed, but with confusion about why Heavenly Father wasn’t coming to our house like the police man did :D haha love our conversations with Riley.
*name has been changed

I came across this post a few days ago from a friend on Facebook. I thought it was interesting that her 4 year old son, despite Sunbeam lessons endorsing the power of god, accused god of being unable to help them find something material. It’s a logical conclusion. God is not a policeman. That’s why his name is “God” and not “Officer God”. It’s depressing to think though that my friend and her husband approached his conclusion with shake of the head at how “funny” children can be and tried to explain to him that through god, the police officers would be able to find their car. Her little boy has a point though, with his “confusion”. How can god help if he doesn’t actually come to their house? Why doesn’t god make his presence known and ask questions and gather information like the police officer did? The answer his parents most likely provided: “Because god knows everything.”

Perhaps, if the child were a little older, his next question would have been along the lines of, “Then why did god let our car be stolen if he knew it was going to happen?” The unfailing LDS response would be, “Because god loves us enough to allow us to go through trials that may not be fun at the time, but will help up us grow closer to Him through these experiences. God is testing us. He wants to know if we truly rely on Him and trust His plan for us.”

Bull shit.

Although I doubt that would be the child’s response. I was in similar situations and had similar responses. God makes our lives hard because He loves us. What a self-serving deity. ‘I’ll make you suffer so that I can make sure that you do love me and so you will further rely on my divine understanding of where I want you to go in life, of which the end result will be to praise me for all eternity.’

Kids say the darndest things. I know this, and am frequently entertained by other posts from my friends with little children, but this one depresses me. The boy genuinely believes in the policeman’s ability to find their car, but is then told that he will only find it if god wants him to find it. How can a person trust anyone if it’s really up to an invisible god whether another individual, who is flesh and blood, can help?


I discovered early this morning that the police were in fact able to recover my friend’s car. What do you think the conversation with their little boy sounded like that night?  
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Response to Mr. Greg Trimble

(Apologies for another long post) In a perusal of my Facebook news feed, I stumbled across a lovely article that a neighbor of my parents shared entitled “So…You Think the Book of Mormon is a Fraud” . Mr. Trimble, who authored this lovely article, uses the typical Mormon circular reasoning that states that if the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith was a prophet; and if Joseph Smith was a prophet, then the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the same Church that Christ established while he was on Earth. So in the Mormon mind, it all comes down to whether the BOM is true or not, and for this, they rely on warm fuzzy feelings to confirm that the Book is in fact, true. Mr. Trimble states that he noticed that most of the people who criticize the Book of Mormon the loudest, have not actually read it. While this may be true, I don’t think a person needs to read a book fully to understand whether it’s true or not. That’s what research is for. Reading the Book of Morm
2 comments
Read more

Struggles...

For nine months, I haven't attended church. It's been quite lovely having my Sunday's completely free and not having to worry about what activities I should or should not be doing. But leaving a religion is a lot more than just not attending regular church meetings. Having been raised since infancy in the LDS church, my identity for 25 years of my life has been linked inexorably to that belief. As humans, we have an inherent desire to identify ourselves, whether it be through groups and beliefs, or jobs, or sports, or talents and hobbies. We invest much of who we think we are into these identities to the extent that when something negative happens, such as we lose that job or can no longer participate in a talent/hobby, we feel an immense sense of loss and confusion. Depending on ones level of immersion, religious identities can be particularly hard to lose. It has been quite liberating to experience the freedom of researching my religious beliefs and expanding my lear
2 comments
Read more

The War in Heaven; Part 2

                I suggest that the extreme horribleness of hell, as portrayed by priests and nuns, is inflated to compensate for its implausibility. If hell were plausible, it would only have to be moderately unpleasant in order to deter. Given that it is so unlikely to be true, it has to be advertised as very scar indeed, to balance its implausibility and retain some deterrence value.                                 Richard Dawkins, God Delusion, pg. 361  I began the first part of this post because of a comment on Facebook and the article that it linked to. I was frustrated by both because they contradict the doctrine I was taught throughout my relation with the Church and they blatantly ignore that it was the same for every member up to the publishing of this article. Not only this, but they make it sound as though the members who believe that we had a choice in heaven between Satan and Jesus (almost every single member) misinterpreted these lessons, and they are the ones at fau
2 comments
Read more