things I never, EVER imagined I would say

A lot of times, as a mother to young boys, I find myself saying odd things. As these odd things are coming out of my mouth, I often find myself scrunching my eyebrows together and thinking, "am I really saying this?!"

The winner of "things I never, EVER imagined I would say" happened 2 nights ago as we were putting the boys to bed.

I was changing Brody into his pj's, and Jasper was jumping around the room with a hammer. He then came over to Brody and said, "Bwody, dis is a hammer. I use it to hammer things, wike I use it to hammer scwews and hammer mulch and hammer nails into your hands and things wike dat."

I was smiling a little at his sweet little chat with Brody, until all of a sudden my mind registered what Jasper had just said...

"i use it to... hammer nails into your hands..."

Wait one second...

Heart stopping...

I turn to Jasper as calmly as I could.

"Hey buddy, did you say you use the hammer to hammer nails into Brody's hands?"

Jasper super sweetly responded, "Yep!"

me- "No. No way. Absolutely not."

Jasper, still very sweet and innocent and totally confused, replied- "But when Jesus was cwucified (crucified) on da cwoss, he told da soldiers dat it was ok for dem to hammer da nails into His hands. If Jesus can have da nails hammer into His hands, why can't I hammer nails into Bwody's hands???!"

me- blink.

blink.

blink some more.

Some major thoughts were going through  my mind, the two biggest ones being"TEACHABLE moment!! teachable moment! Teach Jasper about the crucifixion and Christ's love for us!!" and also the 2nd, major thought going through my mind was "Brody's gonna die."

I forget most of what I said, except I very clearly and distinctly remember saying over and over,

"Jasper, you may never crucify Brody. You may never, EVER crucify Brody. You may never hammer nails into his hands. You may never crucify him when he's sleeping, you may never crucify him when he's awake, when he's happy, when he's sad, when he's standing, when he's sitting, when he's lying down. No matter what, you may NEVER crucify your brother and you may NEVER, EVER hammer nails into his hands. No matter what. No matter what. Never. Do you understand??"

This is, by far, the winner of "things I never, EVER imagined I would ever say."

** forget sewing. forget reading. forget preschool homeschooling. forget immersing my family into culture and going to playdates and classes and exploring downtown atlanta. My one and only goal for my children is to make sure they all live. Period. It's my one and only goal.