Mare's Mess

I know this title is a quote from some movie because Matt is always saying it in the actor's voice. Don't know the actor or the movie, but I thought it was an appropriate title for this entry.

This will probably be a series of posts which detail religious discussions I have with Maly as she loves to talk about God and all things associated with him. It's almost weird how much she talks about it. Her fascination has now moved on to the devil. It all started a few months ago when she was listening to one of her tapes that had the song "Let the Sun Shine In" on it. That song has a line that says (can't remember the exact line now) "something, something, something,. . . all about the devil and I've learned to hate him so." She asked me who the devil was.

Mom (not sure how to answer this question, but winging it): He's a really bad guy who tries to get people to do bad things.
Maly: Where is the devil?
Mom: He's like God - we can't see him but he's everywhere.
Maly: Does the devil live in my heart like God?
Mom: No, he doesn't (what else can I say about that?)
Maly: Good cause I don't like him.

Since that conversation, Maly has often asked me more and more questions about the devil, slowly building her knowledge-base on the subject (if you want to consider the answers I give her as knowledge). Yesterday Maly was giving me the 3rd degree about the devil - who he is, what powers does he have, why God made him, etc. I felt really uncomfortable answering her questions because a) I'm not sure about the whole devil thing myself, b) I don't want to freak her out, c) I'm wondering why she's obsessing about the devil. After a long series of questions and me struggling to answer them she finally said "Why doesn't God kill the devil?" I told her that someday he might (again, really uncomfortable with my answer). Then she asked, "Why doesn't he do it now?" I thought that was a really good question and told her we'd have to add that one to our list to ask God when we see him. Whewwww!

Another funny thing about Maly is that she's so fierce in her beliefs about God. I'm not sure where she gets this, because I've never been particularly emphatic when talking about what God can do - I've just been very matter-of-fact. She'll ask me some crazy things like "Could God make me as big as him?" "Could God give me wings so I could fly?", etc. I just answer questions like this with, "I don't know. I guess he COULD." Maly gets very defensive and says (very empahtically), "Yes he can! He can do anything!" OK, OK! We had a discussion about why God doesn't give us everything we ask for. That seemed to satisfy her for the time being.

Now I just brace myself for the next round!