The Bible in 1 year...with Parker

As a 34 year old, I am very ashamed to admit that I have never totally read the Bible all the way through. While I have read many parts of it, I have always felt like I should know it much better but for some reason I have never made the time. How awful of me! I have a guide that gets you through it in 1 year. I have started it many times and life always gets in the way of me finishing it. I find myself falling asleep and not really paying attention on many nights. My mind wanders to the tasks for the next day and what I didn't get accomplished that day. So, I decided, very selfishly I guess, to invite Parker to take this journey with me. I knew there would be a lot of explaining, a lot of him not paying attention and I suspected, quite a bit of me having to manipulate certain areas to be less adult for his sweet little 7 year old ears. What I didn't expect was the amazing conversations and insight that he has already given me after only 7 days and how much more I am actually getting out of it than when I read it alone. I realize this is a huge thing to ask of a 7 year old but it has gotten me actually excited about reading the Bible every night. What a blessing it is to be a parent and have such an amazing child that can sit and listen and discuss the Bible. Granted, his discussions wander sometimes but I have to write about our discussions so that I can remember and learn from all of this. He is just amazing.
We start at Genesis, of course. I would imagine that the concept of there being nothing on the earth could be very confusing to a kid. Like, there are no Wii's or houses or roads or anything. So as we discuss the 6 days that God created the earth and how there was nothing until God breathed life into it, I could tell Parker had questions. I attempted explaining how some people, mostly scientists, (and forgive me, I am not a scientist or really that knowledgeable about the big bang theory) say that God did not create the earth. They believe that a big bang happened one day and that earth was created. So he asked, "so they must not believe in God?" I tried to explain that, while some of them might believe in God in one way or another, they might not believe that he created the earth and all that is living on it. I continued on by saying but how could that be? Who else could have created the earth and people and all of the fascinating creatures and how could one explosion do that? So he said, "I thought scientists were smart. But if they don't believe in God or that God did all of that then they are not very smart at all!" Amen little man!
Parker was very concerned about the whole Adam and Eve story. He was a little upset that the serpent wasn't written in more, not because he wanted the devil around more, but he really really likes snakes. He liked that God punished the serpent for tricking Eve by crawling on the ground and eating dirt. "That's what snakes do! God did that! That is a good punishment!" Like a lightbulb went off in his head!  And, I cant remember how he worded it but something along the lines of girls getting boys in trouble... oh! He so totally already gets it! We talked about the meaning of temptation and he said like how he might would want to take something from the store but then God would make him go to Hell. That brought up the conversation about his first reconciliation and how he will be going to confess all of his "sins" to the priest soon. With panic and worry written all over his face he says, "I am not getting into Heaven." I reassured him that God is good and forgives, especially sweet little boys that read the Bible with their mommy. :)