Suicidal Three Year-old?

I was having lunch at chick-fil-A with Andrew this afternoon. That is one of our favorite places to eat, I am always impressed by their clean restaurants, healthy menu choices, and small kid friendly play rooms. Anyway, Andrew and I stopped there in between meetings and errands for lunch.

Before he would eat his chicken nuggets he reminded me that we forgot to pray. Not one to discourage meal prayers, even in public places, I agreed. I whispered a fast blessing on the food and said Amen. Andrew said "I forgot the end! Wait!" I thought he was just going to echo Amen but instead he folded his arms and added this request: "please come down and help me die so I can go back up"

What?!?!

I had him explain- he wanted to die because he wanted to go back to Heaven to be with Jesus and heavenly Father because he missed them. He also added that he could start praying that I die, too so I wouldn't miss him.

How do you respond to that? I settled for "Ok. Maybe we can pray to die later, when you are old so we don't miss things like driving a race car or becoming a daddy or being a garbage truck worker." I will use whatever leverage I have!

And that isn't the first time he has said something like that. He asked one day driving home when he could die so he could talk to Heavenly Father again and tell him about his day. I explained he could pray whenever and whatever he wanted and that Heavenly Father would listen to him. And he took me at my word and has been having casual conversations quite regularly now.

My emotions have been a little crazy ever since.

For one, is life in our house really that bad? That he would be dying to get out of here and "back home?" I need to try harder to be nice at bed time and give him more chocolate milk and have more fun. Super mother guilt is overwhelming here!!!

Second, I am scared to death (hopefully not literally!) because we all know that the prayers of the little ones are answered first! And Andrew has some pretty strong faith! He prays for everything-from help picking up his trucks, to blessing the food, to scaring away monsters at bed time. And it usually works. So now I am terrified that he might just get his wish. Every sniffle could turn into meningitis or pneumonia or an asthma attack. Is the next time he darts away from me in the parking lot going to be the last time? The next time he "Superman!"s off the back of the couch and knocks his head, will that golf ball sized bruise really be a skull fracture or brain hemorrhage? Or will he just disappear during the night after I have yelled at him one too many times to get back in bed?

I am right on the verge of becoming the crazy, over-protective mother now. And I am starting to pray a lot more often for the safety of my little ones.

What now?