Your Children Are Sponges — What Are They Absorbing?

The tattered Precious Moments children’s Bible sits on our kitchen shelf.  Its pages are filled with pink notes written in my loopy 8th grade handwriting … and truth.  Truth that’s been nourishing my spirit since my Grandma Marlene gave me that Bible for Christmas almost twenty years ago.

Truth that I’ve been sharing with Little Man since he was three months old.

And yesterday, this –

“Bah-buh!” {pointing to the Bible}

“You want to read the Bible, sweetie?  You want to read the Bible?!?!”  {Little Man nodding}

Now, I know, at 21 months old, that he was asking to read the Bible pretty much because it’s part of our daily routine and he’s come to expect it.

But I also know that although he understands very little of what we read today, these seeds of truth are nourishing his little spirit and they will bear fruit later.

I can’t put into words the joy that washed over me in that moment.

Or the panic that followed.

Because daily Bible reading isn’t the only thing that Little Man has picked up from his mama.

The smallest smudge of peanut butter on his pudgy little finger can spark a three-alarm meltdown.  Music of any kind sets his feet a-dancing.  One of his first words was “llama.”

Where’s he getting this stuff?  {ahem}

Our children are sponges, mama.  Sticky, loud, adorable sponges.  They soak it all in.

Everything we do, everything we say … they absorb it all, and their little hearts translate –

This is the way things should be done, this is the way things should be said.

The enormous weight of that responsibility sends me to my knees.

Please, Lord, when he looks at me, let him see You.  Let him see the joy, the peace that comes from knowing you.  The sin that I struggle with … let it not touch him, Father.

When my son looks at me, I want him to see a woman whose heart is on fire with love for the Savior who redeemed her, whose knees hit the floor daily on behalf of her family.

What do you want your children to see?  What are you modeling for them today?

God bless,
Megan

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