Wise Beyond Their Years

 

We were watching an episode of Little House on the Prairie the other day (shocker, right?) and the following conversation took place:

Boo: I’m not afraid of dying….unless it’s not how God wants me to die.
Me: What do you mean?
Boo: Well like if I die from being old like the Indian did…that’s okay…but I don’t want to be killed.

Funny….I feel the exact same way….just never really put it into such simple terms.

 

I asked for your examples on Facebook yesterday. Thank you for all the replies….many brought tears to my eyes and definitely lots of laughter….here’s some of what you said:

 

ON PRAYER

When my son was in first grade he approached his substitute teacher, who was being mean (and had been mean in the past) and asked her if she would like him to pray for her. She declined the offer, but asked him why he had offered. He said “my mommy says we should always pray for mean people because they probably have pain in their heart”. He said her eyes “got wet”. (She was never mean after that) – Karen B.

ON HEAVEN

My mother-in-law died in the night. My husband was with her in Michigan. I was with my 3 year old son in NC, watching him sleep. When he woke up, I said, “Baby, Mommy has some news to tell you.” He said, “I already know Grandma died, Mommy. It took her all night to die and get to heaven.” Rachel P.

 

My husband passed away when our son was 3 and our daughter was 1. My son remembers him but my daughter doesn’t. One day when she was 6 my daughter was in her room crying and I asked her what was wrong. She said, “I’m scared I won’t be able to find daddy when I get to Heaven, I don’t remember what he looks like.” I told her that it would be okay and that he would find her. She said, “I want to live a long time, but I also can’t wait to meet him.” –Alida L.

 

My daughter talked about my dad, who died several years before she was born, I was crying looking at his pic and she said “Mom, my pappy sent me to make you smile again.” She talks about meeting him in heaven before she was born. She’s told me stuff about him she couldnt know!! Took my breath away! -Lynn S.

 

My daughter was a twin and her twin brother died at 7 months. When she was about 4 we had visited his grave on his anniversary. We were leaving and she grabbed my hand and said “night night little buddy, Evan, sleep tight.” I started crying and she looked up and said “don’t cry Mommy he said he is alright.” Seriously, melt my heart!  -Jennifer W.

 

We were at a funeral and my daughter said “Mommy I know we are supposed to be happy when someone goes to Jesus in Heaven, but I sure wish we could all go at one time so no one had to miss anyone.” –Amy O.

 

My daughter’s grandpa passed away (her father and I are divorced) I told my daughter I was sorry and told her not to be sad he was in heaven. My daughter told me she was worried for her family, she already knew her Grandpa was in heaven. –Joy C.

 

 

ON LOVE

My same daughter also has a stuttering problem and said told me today her friends at preschool “broke up” with her today because they don’t understand the way she talks. I felt so broken hearted for her and asked her how she felt about it she told me, ” It’s okay Mom, I will find a best friend and love her even if we don’t talk all the time she will just love me anyways.” – Jennifer S.

 

I was once watching my future step-daughter while her dad was at work. We were playing dress up and she went to put a ring on my finger. As she placed it on my finger she said, “Now you must love him forever.” That was a year ago when she was three and her father and I are getting married in October. –Stacey D.

 

When my son was about 3, we were driving to the Outer Banks and there were medians full of wildflowers. He looked at me with a serious face and said: “Mom, if I could, I would pick those flowers and spell out the words I Love You with them.” I will never forget that, he just turned 21.  –Candace H.

 

My son, at 4, created a large lump of Playdough that actually really looked like a human heart. I asked him what he made. He said, “it’s a heart and it can connect to everybody.” –Tamara H.

 

“Mama–I think your superpower is love.” (Maybe not so PROFOUND, but the fact that I remember it says something!)  -Amy H.

 

“Mommy when I grow up I want to be a butterfly then I can always fly to wherever you are.” -Deborah T.

 

My son was 3 or 4. Riding in the car I told him, ‘I loved you with all my heart.” I could see, in the rear view mirror, he was trying to understand the statement. I explained that my love for him filled my heart with my favorite thing (him)! A few minutes passed and I here from the back of the car….“I love you with all my ice cream!” Melted my heart then and to this day when he tells me it. {he is 11 yr!}  -Jane P.

 

 

ON THE SMALL STUFF

Me: “I’m so sick of cleaning this house!”
Elliott (5): “Then stop cleaning the house…”
Touché ….
-Lauren B.

 

My 8 year old son (now 16) asked me this: “Mom, if Saddam Hussein were about to be hit by a bus – would you push him out of the way and save him or let him get hit? What would God expect from us?” We had a great discussion and was shocked he would think about this at such a young age. On the other hand, it takes the wisdom of a child to ask a question like this  -Carina S.

 

We were getting ready for a trip to Florida and I was stressed and up late trying to pack. I was yelling at my husband and I said “forget it, we aren’t going.” A little later the kids woke up and came out to bring me their stuffies to pack. I told them I didn’t know if we were going. My five-year-old son sat down next to me, as I was covered in luggage and laundry, and said, “It’s alright, Mom, it doesn’t matter what you pack. Just go get some stuff from the bedroom and throw it in the suitcase. It’s just clothes, Mom, it just…doesn’t matter.” -Angela L.

 

 

ON JOY

My 7-year-old daughter has a clumsy streak. She hurts herself all the time. In kindergarten, she fell face first on the cement and ended up with a giant fat lip and scraped up face. Later that evening, someone said something funny, and she just kind of giggled, trying not to move her face too much. I said, “It must really hurt to smile, huh?” To which she replied, “It never, ever hurts to smile.” -Karen F.

 

Joy is Love…written on my office’s dream and draw wall.  –Amanda M.

 

 

 

ON GOD

Kids have big hearts, more kindness than many adults, and more wisdom it appears too! So the story that I thought of right away was when my daughter, Teagan, age 3 1/2, and I were spending long, lazy days out in the crisp fall air. She loved being outdoors and never missed a detail in the world around her. One day when we put our jackets on and stepped outside the tree in our front yard had changed from the golden yellow leaves to some with splashes of red. Teagan looked at me and said exclaimed, “God must have gotten new paints last night!”. We never got to spend another fall together as she died that next summer. But I still think of her and often cry at the first changing colors that I see each autumn season. I imagine that the view from Heaven is even more spectacular and I am glad that my little girl loved her Maker!  -Jody F.

 

My 7 year old son said to me, “Mom, I know why we can’t see God….because he has the whole world in his hands.” A different time, I asked my 4 year old what he learned from Veggie Tales and he said, “God made me special.” -Julie H.

 

I told my daughter (she was 5 at the time; she is now 7) that God is like the wind, you cannot see HIM but you can feel HIM. I told her this after she asked me why we believe in God if we cannot see him. One year later we were at the park and a gust of wind came; she stood up and extended her arms and said “I can feel God right now, HE is all around me.” -Yokary C.

 

“I was with God before I was in your belly. He knew you and Daddy would be a perfect match for me.” Callie Jane at 4  -Jenn W.

 

From my autistic son at age 3, during a dark time in his diagnosis and treatment: “Mommy, God loves me and he said He will take care of me.” Melissa H.

 

I was having a pregnant emotional meltdown one night last year while cuddling with my then 5 year old before bed. I told her I was scared for it to not just be me and her anymore and that I didn’t ever want her to feel like she wasn’t the most important person in the world to me… she said, all matter-of-factly: “Well, God is the king & he tells us what to do, so we just have to do it!”… touché, said I!  -Amy B.

 

 

ON BEAUTY

Our third baby had a cleft lip and palate. After the 2nd surgery our oldest (5yr old) “Mommy those doctors messed up Cooper’s big smile I miss it.” -Katie A.

 

I was pregnant with my older child when his father suddenly passed away. Unfortunately, the father of my younger son died when my younger son was five. After the funeral, I was helping the boys – five and eight, out of the back seat of the car and was just rocked by my love for them. Knowing the immensity of my love for my sons, I could not imagine the incredible grief that the mothers of THOSE men were experiencing. I looked at my boys and wrapped them both up in my arms. Down at their eye level I told them that I could just not imagine what I would do if something happened to one of them. The younger, Tanner, with the wisdom of one MUCH older, said to me “You would still be Mommy because there would still be one of us left.” Over the past 21 years I have been gifted time and time again by the wisdom out of the mouths of my “babies” – now 21 and almost 24.   –Andrea A.

 

My daughter, now 18, was 3, when I said to her, “You are such a pretty girl.” Her response to me, “Mommy, ALL girls are pretty.” That is how she has lived her life. – Beth J.

 

ON ACCEPTANCE

My middle daughter was about 6 years old at the time and we were talking about what we wanted to be when we grew up. She said she couldn’t decide and I told her that she could be whatever she wanted if she worked really hard…even the President of the United States. Without skipping a beat she just giggled and said: “Mama, they don’t let brown people be President.” (This was pre-Obama). It rocked me to my core and made me so sad that at such a young age she believed that to be true. –Mandy S.

 

My 3 year old said the other day, just as a matter of fact, “Boys love boys, and girls love girls, and girls love boys, and boys love girls.” Not exactly profound. But just shows that 3 year olds understand, perhaps better than the rest of us, that love should be for everyone, and there should be more of it. As hyped up as that girl is she has a fantastic heart and hurts when anyone is unhappy or upset. And she just wants to love everyone “Just a little. Because I’m little. My heart-love is only little still.” -Harmony M.

 

My almost 3.5 year old daughter, Ruby said to me ” Mommy…all peoples are the same cause we all have the same kind of heart on the inside!” – Jen K.

 

 

 

THE TRUTH

When my oldest was 4 she caught me in a little white lie and firmly told me, “Mommy, you’re lying, and lying is a desperate crime of love!” -Jessica P.

 

I am in Walmart, with my 5 yr old daughter, shopping for a sympathy card. She asks why I am getting a card and my reply is that I needed a card because someone I knew passed away. She thinks for a minute and with a very confused look says, “Well how will she know you got her a card if she died?”. The few people standing around us died laughing.  -Dana D.

 

This past weekend in the car my husband and I were trying to have a conversation, but my daughter (4) was asking questions nonstop and asking us to put a movie on. My husband says to her, “just relax and look out the window.” She replies, “I can’t relax. It takes a lot of energy to relax!” -Sandra S.

 

My 6 year old came home from kindergarten on Presidents Day, after an entire day of learning about presidents she told me that she was going to be president one day. The next day she learned about Lincoln and the first thing she said after school was “I am NOT being president! Because if they don’t agree with what I say they’ll kill me and I don’t wanna get killed” -Candace N.

 

When my son was about 8, he spent a Thanksgiving day with his dad and family (we are divorced obviously). He came home and said “I’ve never heard people talk so much but say so little.” He was born an old soul….he is 30 now and still amazes me. -Trish W.

 

 

 

ON TENACITY

Sawyer was 4 when he asked, “Mommy? You always say I can do anything I set my mind to, right?”
I said, “Sure buddy…”
He said, “Ok, well I set my mind to gettin’ that candy on top of the fridge.” –Deanna H.

 

 

ON PERSPECTIVE

About 6 months ago after surgery #13 I developed a Colo/Vaginal Fistula (google it). When I met with the surgeon that would make the repair he told me I had to wait for 3 months before the repair could be done. I was devastated. I had my family with me and I broke down crying. How could I live like this for 3 months?? My ten year old son took my hands and looked me squarely in the eyes. “Mom, I know it’s hard, but all you need is a different perspective!” The next three months flew by and it was hard…but with my new “perspective” everything worked out. I am 8 weeks post op, surgery #14 and feel better than ever!  -Brandi U.

My husband and I were having a conversation when Mia, my 4 yrs old, jumped in: “Mom, you should always look at the bright side.” Me: “Oh yea? And where is the bright side?” Mia: “It is inside you heart, momma.” -Vicki L.

 

ON MARRIAGE

My son who is now almost 24…when he was 12-13 he said “I will never date someone I can not marry.” I thought he was wise beyond his years!!  -Beth F.

 

 

 

ON GROWING UP

I was playing with my 2 year old and I was talking in a silly voice and she looked at me dead serious and said “talk to me like a grown up.” -Lacey R.

 

After registering for pre-school this year, I told my daughter I it made me sad that she was growing up so quickly. She replied “But I’ll always be your little girl.” *tear*  -Katherine L.

 

I was upset about my baby (who just turned 11) turning 5 years old. She saw me crying and said “Mom, I have to grow up sometime.” -Michelle D.

 

 

ON INDIVIDUALITY

Went to my 4 year old sons PreK and read his little “when I grow up I wanna be _____” sign. Amongst firefighters and ballerinas, his read “Just Nate”…to thine own self be true!  -Carole C.

 

“Were some people born to paint, dance and sing? Because I think I was.” -my son at close to age 6  -Therese B.

 

My then 3 year old (now 15) once reminded me that “God makes everybody different.” I remind her of this when she is down on herself or others.  – Sarah W.

 

My now 27 year old son said, “Everyone’s weird in their own way.” When he was in the third grade. Always stuck with me!  -Robin K.

 

Just this morning I told my 5 year old she wasn’t allowed to pout for not getting her way. She told me “but this is how God and Jesus made me, so it’s ok for me to pout.” –Molly H.

 

I have some motivational sayings up in my bathroom, one of which is “The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.” Earlier this year, my daughter (5) started saying to me “Who you are is what you do.” I didn’t immediately put it together that she was reading the sign but I thought it was really profound. Now she says “what you do is who you are.” Also true.  –Heather H.

 

 

WISE BEYOND THEIR YEARS

A few years after I got divorced I began dating and man. After three years dating one man I thought we were in a serious relationship and had talked about marriage. One day I discovered that he had another girlfriend in a different city where he worked three days a week. Needless to say I was shocked and so hurt. I now know better, but at the time I thought there was something wrong with me that caused the boyfriend to cheat on me. My very wise wonderful teenage son looked me in the eye one particularly bad day and said something that changed my life. He said “Mom, maybe it’s not about you….maybe it’s about how dysfunctional he is.” I had been raised to feel like I was never good enough. My son is the person that taught me how to love and respect myself and I will be forever grateful. Both of my son’s are wise beyond their years and I continue to learn from them.

 

My older son as an autism spectrum diagnosis. Some kids had been given balloons by a friend at school and he didn’t get one. His younger brother was about 9 at the time and he said: “You know Mom, sometimes I think people think Josh doesn’t have any feelings when really he has extra feelings.” -Jen P.

 

I was watching the news one day and though I forget now what it was about, the newscaster said something about a black man. My son, who had just turned three, asked in confusion, “A black man?” I showed him a picture of Jay Z and told him he was black. Micah gave me a funny look and said, “He’s just a man.” I love him  -Aimee L.

 

My 12 year-old son has always been a little old man in a child’s body (he is profoundly gifted and has an above college graduate reading level) BUT he has a terrible time relating to children his own age, and they are regularly cruel to him. After one particularly awful day, I laid down next to him in his bed and said “I’m so sorry, I know it is hard getting along better with grownups rather than children” and he said “it’s okay mommy, one day I’ll be a grown up, and it will be okay that that they like me more then children do” I don’t think I was able to put things in such a wise perspective at his age, I guess not even at my age, since I worry about him all the time!  -Catherine G.

 

We were driving down a road a few years ago that was undergoing some construction. Every 20 feet or so, there was a dip in the asphalt. From the back seat, my 3-year-old daughter asks, “Mommy, why does Jesus put so many bumps in this road?!” My 4-year-old son answers her, “So we can feel how smooth all the other parts are. Right mommy?” Made me think deeply about so many other things! -Falynn D.

 

We were cuddling one day when my son was about 3. He was laying his head on my chest. After a bit he looked up at me and said “that’s what it sounded like when I was in your tummy.” Doubtful and baffled I asked him what it was like in there and very matter of fact he said it was red. I found this to be so amazing. He was born at 28 weeks and was only 1 lb 12 oz. How is this possible? I still can’t wrap my head around it. He’s a miracle all the way around.  –Mikki W.

 

I was having a pregnant emotional meltdown one night last year while cuddling with my then 5yo before bed. I told her I was scared for it to not just be me & her anymore & that I didn’t ever want her to feel like she wasn’t the most important person in the world to me… she said, all matter-of-factly “Well, God is the king & He tells us what to do, so we just have to do it!”… touché, said I!  -Amy B.

 

 

ON IMPERFECTION

One time I was visibly upset because of a mistake I had made, like very devastated. My daughter made me a card that said, “Mommy I love you, you are the best Mommy even if you make mistakes.” It was so simple but it helped me more than anything anyone else could have said to me…instant forgiveness, unconditional love. It was like I was given permission to be imperfect, and as a perfectionist who is very hard on herself, that was an amazing feeling. -Terri C.

 

 

 

ON ANGER

“When people are angry and yell, it makes my heart break into a million pieces.” -Anna M.

 

RIDDLE ME THIS

My 3 year old daughter had cut her knee once after falling over and didn’t freak about the blood but was very inquisitive about it. A few days later she asked, “If my body is full of blood, then why don’t I feel wet on the inside?” It took me a long while to answer that lol! –Emma W.

 

My son said to me after visiting a dairy farm “does that cow spit out the whole jug of milk or what?” -Carol V.

 

“Mommy, if bombs were pink, would they still hurt people when they explode?” Ava. Age 6  -Jeanine P.

 

 

ON GRATITUDE

‘Thank you for giving me life!” -Jackie F.

 

My son during one of his deployments to Iraq responded to my email where I told him that I was so proud of the amazing man he’d become responded with “I wouldn’t be who I am if I hadn’t had you as my awesome Mom.” Yep I cried.  –Stormy S.

 

Henrik is 3, he said “thank you for my life.” -Lisa R.

 

We have always had a very open adoption with my son’s birth mother. We started early on talking about how he was in AK’s tummy. As the questions began to grow as he got older I found myself one day (when he was about 6) telling him more about how his birth mother placed him with us and more of the details surrounding it. After taking it all in and sitting quiet for a minutes he spoke up very heartfelt and said “that was a really nice thing that she did”. That was the most perfect response I could have ever asked for.  –Amy F.

 

Wisdom from my oldest (14) this weekend: You know, if people REALLY want to be counter cultural, in an extreme way, all they need to do is be seriously grateful.  -Janelle D.

 

 

ON STRENGTH

Just today as we were packing the truck for our move from VA to OK my son said he was feeling a little overwhelmed and told me God whispered in his left ear “you can do this.” -Rebecca G.

 

“If you can’t decide, just try using your inner ninja!” -Julia B.

“I bleve in you.” – Nick left a note on my desk for me when he was in 2nd grade (while I was going through a very nasty divorce from his father). I have it framed along with a picture of him at that age. –Lacey C.

 

My 6 1/2 year old daughter was playing at the playground with some friends. She was on the climber and attempting to go on the monkey bars where you use your hands to carry yourself from one end to the other without touching the ground. She fell and hit her mouth drawing blood. Seeing this from a distance, I ran to her and comforted her. Telling her that next time she just needed to call for me and I would be there to spot her. She looked up at me and with tears in her eyes said, “but mommy, you’re always telling me to challenge myself….” -Hope M.

 

My son is 9 now but when he was 6 he told me that when he grows up, he wants to go into the military to serve our country. He later asked me on a drive home one day, “Mom, will you be ok if I don’t return from fighting in a war?” -Mindy G.

 

My three year old daughter, Lily, once told me. “I’ll never leave you, and I’ll NEVER let a monster eat you.” -Emily I.

 

 

 

ON FAMILY

My eight year old son loves Legos. Last Christmas he built me a yellow suspension bridge, made of legos, to display on a shelf and he made a card to go with it. The card said (referring to the bridge) “these are the ropes that hold our family together.” It amazed me that he was using his Legos to demonstrate such a sweet metaphor.  –Crystal W.

 

 

ON FAITH

My 7 year old has just celebrated his First Holy Communion…during the celebration mass all the children (82 of them) sat together and parents sat in the pews behind. Luckily I could still see my son from where we were sat….right after receiving the Holy Host for the first time he went back to his seat and sat down, clasped his hands and closed his eyes. Later I asked him how he felt straight after communion…and his reply was: “Mama I felt so close to Jesus, he was really inside me, I could feel Him.” My heart was in my throat….could only just hug my son…  –Becky B.

 

 

JUST FUNNY

“Mom, are we Italian or Vegetarian?” Me: “Well, honey, actually we are Irish.” -Kerry M.

 

We were showing my daughter different parts of her body and where they were located. We told her she had two kidneys, and she said “no I have four. 1, 2 ( pointing where her kidneys would be), 3, 4..(pointing at her knees, her KID-knees)! Witty kids!  -Regina P.

 

When my son was 2 1/2 I was snuggled with him reading a book. I stopped and looked at him and said, “I love you so much buddy. Who’s your favorite person in the world?” Without skipping a beat he said, “bob theeeger” aka Bob Seger.  -Tiffany T.
My 4 year old was helping his dad with fixing something. He picked up a screwdriver and said to us: “Alright, now who wants to be fixed?” -Marianne O.

 

Upon being asked for some winning lottery numbers, my then 3 year old shrugged, “I dunno, Mama. It’s a mystery.” -Cerise W.

 

Another time we were watching a NatGEO wild show about a “man-eating” croc that people were trying to catch and relocate. As serious as she could be my 6 year old said “if it’s a man-eating crocodile then why don’t they let the women catch it?” –Candace N.

 

When our 5 yr. old daughter was 3 1/2 she pulled this random observation out of nowhere: “My bones are my people and my body is an airplane.” I am still awestruck from this gem. Heavy.  –Hillary D.

When Jeff was about 10 I called him a spoiled brat. He looked at me and said “Dad, I may be spoiled, but I’m NOT a brat.” –Ron F.

 

 

Anymore you’d like to add? I’d love to hear them in the comments!