"A shark didn't come to my house."

Let me begin by saying that I am a firm believer in each individual's right to his or her own opinions about anything in life.  Just because I don't agree with it doesn't mean that I'm going to degrade or look down on you.  It's your opinion, and I respect that...


...but a few days ago I went to do some of my observations at a local child development center.  A friend of mine from school and I were just getting to meet the kids, so we were chatting it up with them...

...mind you, they are 4-years-old so that didn't consist of many topics, mainly just random thoughts such as:

Kid 1:  "A shark didn't come to my house."
Me:  "Oh yeah?  Well, I hope not."
Kid 1:  "No, he didn't come because... I didn't dream of it."
Me:  "Uhh.... well, okie dokie."

My friend then says something about her son, whose name is Christian.  In comes Kid 2 with a response that caught me totally off guard:

Kid 2:  "I can't talk about 'Christian' because I'm not a Christian."
Friend:  "Well, okay, but I was talking about my little boy so we can talk about him.  It's okay."
(and away walks Kid 2)

I sat there in absolute astonishment.  The child is merely 4-years-old, and his parents believe so strongly in the fact that they are NOT Christians that they have firmly instilled that in their own children, so much so that they don't even want to be around a conversation mentioning the word... it just broke my heart.  He's so young.  Doesn't he deserve the time to learn about his parents' beliefs and then make an informed decision later in life about his own, rather than them push that so incredibly strongly on him?  To the point where he doesn't even feel comfortable being in a conversation with someone who merely brings up the word 'Christian,' regardless of it's reference?

(sigh)

On the same token, though, it got me thinking:

We, as Christians, claim to be just that.  So, why is it that a non-believer is willing to so strongly force their beliefs on their children, but we aren't willing to do that with our own children?  To firmly instill our Christian ethics in them?

I'm no parent yet by any means, but I will one day be.  I don't want to force feed my children my beliefs about life to the point where they will, without fail, rebel when they're older, but I want to be the kind of parent that instills a more-than-good foundation for the beliefs of myself and my husband... in my children. 

I don't want them to fear discussion about other people's beliefs.
I want them to embrace those discussions because it gives them a chance to express their beliefs in their God, their Father.

I think that's what broke my heart the most about Kid 1's comment.

And perhaps, like my mother said, Kid 1 was merely saying that they're not Christian but that they're Jewish or something of that nature...

but something tells me that's not the case.