Our family is Catholic and Jake is at the wonderful age of preparing for his his first communion. I am so excited for him and we have lots to prepare before he actually receives his first communion.
Our family goes to classes where we all learn different aspects to our religion and the scripture.
In Jake's class, they learn the structure of mass, about Saints, prayers, etc. In the adult class we learn how to be better parents by incorporating our faith into our child rearing, we read scripture and discuss how it affects our daily lives (especially dealing with raising children).
However, we have not discussed anything in our class to help me with this...
In preparation for our class this week, Jake and I were working on memorizing the Nicene Creed (the Catholics confession of faith that is recited by memory at each mass). We started working through it together. The first paragraph was no problem.
Second paragraph was getting a little hazy so to make it easier for Jake to understand, I was was explaining what each paragraph meant. ...."we believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father..." I was able to explain how Jesus was begotten and is part of God.
All was going well and Jake was really getting into how I was explaning how Jesus came from God to be with us and teach us.
Until ...three lines down.
"by the power of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man".
I was still naive enough to think I could skirt over this one but Jake stopped and asked "What is a Virgin?".
My mouth turned to cotton and I could not think of how to answer his question while keeping the meaning of how (and more importantly why) Jesus became man. I should of been prepared but I was NOT. Not-the-least-bit-prepared. I failed with my "uh, uh, well...ummm".
Mitch, standing behind Jake, was giving me the "OK Mom, what do you have to say to that!" look. I can't even remember what I said to answer his question. (And I use answer loosely) but I know Mitch had to jump in and try and save me!
Why did we not cover this in class? There had to be so many parents before us who were asked this question as Virgin is not in our normal conversation with our 8 year-old child. Anytime the news comes on I mute or turn off the TV so I don't have to answer these questions yet. I relish this time on innocence. I am trying to find my "life remote" to hit a pause button!
I know theses conversations are coming. I will be ready to answer these questions and be honest with my children when they are 10, or 15, or better yet 30. But not yet. I am not ready! And I did not think these questions would come from learing about Jesus for goodness sakes!
So, one more thing to add to the to do list...research answers to give to your child when asked about the birds and the bees.
Pray for me as I am so not ready for this!
I would probably say, if ever asked that by an 8 year old, "someone who isn't married." This would also further the lesson that non-virgins are married people.
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