So Addison and I were reading through the story of Joseph over the last few nights. It’s a really good story with examples of trusting God and how He is at work in our circumstances even when we don’t always see it.
One night we got to the point where Joseph was working in Potiphar’s house and was basically in control of mostly everything…mostly.
But then Potiphar’s wife starts coming onto Lil Joe. Now Addison’s Bible isn’t remedial, but it isn’t all bubbly pictures. And we got to the point where the woman kept telling Joseph, “Make love to me!” As soon as I read that part aloud, I started reading faster and thinking, “Don’t ask. Don’t ask. Don’t ask.”
Of course Addison stops me and asks, “What was she trying to get him to do?”
So now I’m stuck. She is not a girl who is easily brushed aside. So I had to be creative and truthful on the fly. I ended up explaining that Potiphar was not at home and that Potiphar’s wife wanted Joseph to sleep in her bed with her and act like her husband, when Joseph was not her husband.
I paused…waiting to see if that was good enough. I could see the wheels turning. And then she said, “Oh, okay.” And we kept reading.
I think you gave a great answer (and were fortunate she wanted no further ezplanation). Kids usually want a simple answer…usually but not always.
“she wanted to make babies”… just for fun… see where it goes.
But for her age, your answer is good… but the more these questions come up, you’re going to need to start answering with reality… probably not quite yet … i knew about how all that worked by the time i was in 4th grade… none of it from my parents…
so we wanted to make sure our 8 year old learned it from us. She’s probably ahead of the curve, but eventually she asked some questions that opened the door and we went for it (a few months before her 8th bday). Its really not that big of a deal… we’ve talked about it a few times since then.
I think you were brilliant! Better than I would ever hope to be. A student came to my desk last year and said, “Miss, I’ve looked in the dictionary and used context clues and I still don’t get it. What exactly ARE the birds and the bees?”