They Can Learn

Every morning, as I have mentioned before, Addie and I have a devotion time together. We had been reading the account of Noah (a cute book with colorful, cartoony-looking pictures) for several months, back before she could roll over. Then, I moved her into the account of the Baby Jesus. I figured that if she needed to know about any person in the Bible, Jesus was the most important. We did that for many months as well.

We are now in a book about little boy Jesus (basically all of the things that Jesus probably did as a little boy- loved His friends, helped Joseph and Mary, lived in a house, had good food to eat, prayed, etc.), and we then relate it back to Addie ("are you Jesus' friend?", "Addie helps Mommy and Daddy, too", "Addie lives in a house", "Jesus makes sure that Addie has good food to eat, too"). It is actually one of the books my mom used with me when I was a toddler.

Every time I introduce either of the Jesus books I always say, "Look, Mama, it's Jesus (pointing to the picture of Jesus)! He loves you (she gets a squeeze here), and He wants to live in your heart (and I point to her chest where her heart is)!"

Well, today after church, Brian took us out to dinner to The Golden Corral. I pulled out her Baby Jesus book to keep her occupied while we ate. And I said, "It's Baby Jesus!" At this point, Addie took her fist, smiled really big, and pounded her chest where her heart is! To make sure I wasn't seeing things, I said it again and got the same response from her. Later, when we got into the car and we were driving home, we brought up Jesus again (I think we were singing a song this time), and, once again, she pounded her heart.

There are times when I think, "Is she really getting it? Should I just wait until she is a bit older?" and then a moment, a perfect moment, like this happens. Completely unexpected, totally unplanned, but utterly wonderful. And then I am encouraged to continue teaching her, to keeping pushing forward, to not give up because she is "getting it".