Lessons Learned

Tonight in a desperate attempt to keep my cool while feeding Noah and trying to contain and entertain a cake-hungover-ready-for-bed two year old at the same time, I started singing songs. We sing lots of songs in our house; the kids love it. The purpose was three-fold. I'd (hopefully) keep from crying, Noah might smile and allow me to sneak food through his lips, and Ella might "play" by singing the words I left out.

We do this all the time with books, but rarely with songs. Ella amazed me tonight. I sang songs she hasn't heard in some time. Songs full of big words and words she doesn't have much context for. But sure enough, when I paused, she filled in the blanks with just the right words. Words like "Canaan" and "spying" and "giants" ("12 young men went spying in Canaan). Next I started singing, "the fruit of the Spirit's not a _____" and without skipping a beat, Ella piped up "banana" then "eat it". It's a fun song that goes "the fruit of the Spirit's not a banana....so if you've got a banana you might as well eat it, cause it's not a fruit of the Spirit. The Spirit is...." And then without any prompting I heard Ella say "Joy" "Peace" and "Good"(ness).

I learned a few good lessons tonight that I hope I don't forget. For one thing nothing falls on deaf ears. Nothing. I often just think along the lines of things I shouldn't talk about in front of my kids, or words I shouldn't say. While that's important, the flip side of that is the things I should talk about to and allow my kids to hear! I have so many opportunities to love them, teach them and share with them things that I believe will bless them and help them bless others as they go through this life. And it's NEVER too early. They're never too young to learn, and never too young to teach their mama an important lesson or two.