Making Jesus Smile

It was an ordinary Tuesday, that ended in a not-so-ordinary way.

I was tucking my 6 year old son in as usual. We read our three books, we said our prayers. I said goodnight to him, he said goodnight to me. I usually like to lay there with him for a few minutes and rub his back to help him relax and smooth the way to dreamland. We were silent for about five minutes. I thought I was done with my mommy-ness and was enjoying the relaxing moment before I headed down to clean up the kitchen.

Out of the dark silence came "mom, what does acting with character mean?"

Time to put my game face back on.

When a six year old asks you this sort of question, this is the time to not screw it up. I felt like I was on one of those game shows where it is absolutely important for me to get it right. I paused to gather my thoughts, usually asking more questions to buy some time.

"Where did you learn about that?"

"I don't know" he said, usually to mean he didn't want to tell me in case it was a bad thing.

Then I proceeded to put together my best response I could gather. I flustered my way through examples of when someone hurts you on the playground or cuts in front of you in line, how to choose the high road. But I gave him my failsafe test of acting with character -- asking if what you are doing makes your mom and dad smile. And also if it makes God smile.

I borrowed that one from his teacher. It was so good that I thought I would recycle it. When given the rare special day at his Christian school to wear their favorite out of dress code clothes, the teacher's only rule is that their outfit has to "make Jesus smile." I think that's a pretty good test for acting with character and just about everything else in life.

I hope my son got it. He said he understood. I felt like I wanted to keep talking and talking to make sure he got my point. But my son prompted, "mom, I got it. Can I go to sleep now?"

I lay there next to him five minutes more enjoying this rare proud moment when my son asked a good life stuff question. Even better, I was basking in the fact that I actually had a great answer.