ABC'S & 123'S

My oldest son is pretty busy all day playing with blocks, hockey sticks, his brother, our cell phone, books, the dog, dried pasta, golf clubs and other favorite things. However, right before nap time or bed time, he sometimes likes to watch a movie. I believe he's entered into that wonderful "never grows tired of the same movie" phase. I guess, on a positive note, the present fascination is with an educational type movie - complete with catchy little tunes about numbers that keeps playing over and over in mama's brain...

It's so neat getting to see my sons learn. I love to hear the cute first words, even though "Mama" came after "Daddy", "Ball"and "Chance" (the dog). I love hearing the words being put into little sentences - "Chance chase Bunny? Chance no like Bunny!" :) We love to see them get new concepts and see their understanding growing. We have found ourselves being full time teachers - learning colors while eating a freezie and counting Cheerios at breakfast.

Today, as I was counting the stairs with my son and a load of laundry in tow, I thought about a bible passage from Deuteronomy. It says;

"Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them to your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates (NIV 6:5-9)."

As I counted my way up the stairs I wondered if I was doing as good a job teaching my son about God's love and His ways as I was 123's and ABC's. I read a book that told the story of a mother who had raised many children to love God and be passionate followers of Him. One of her friends simply stated that she lived her life before them exactly how she wanted them to live. You know, God makes it so easy. We don't have to have a degree from a Seminary to teach our children how to live for Christ. He just wants us to follow Jesus in the simple everyday things - the "everydayness" of sitting at home, walking along the road, lying down and getting up. When our children watch how we handle the cranky cashier lady, how we treat our sick neighbor, what we give to the poor, how we talk to our spouse, or how we react to another spilled sippy cup of milk...then they learn about God. The next time I'm singing a silly ABC song over and over and over...I'll be reminded that my children learn about God through me.