Alert Little Ears

Two and a half weeks ago our daughter turned five. Before heading down to SeaWorld to see Shamu, we took her to the mall to get her little ears pierced. Since then I have been reflecting on how teachable children are and how engaged their little ears really are. Who would have thought that our daughter would teach us and delight our hearts so much.

Let me share a few ways . . .

• Any time Sofia-Maree sees one of us or hears of someone else sad or ill, she drops everything and disappears for some time only to emerge later with a colorful card adorned by pastel butterflies, flowers, rainbows, little people etc and filled with words of love to cheer that person up.

• Recently when we were out, I had a brief opportunity to speak with someone about the Lord. On the way home, Sofia-Maree asked me about it then commented, "Mommy, it makes me so happy that you gave him that because he needed to hear the gospel!"

• There's nothing this girl loves like giving back to God. She regularly puts the majority of her $1 weekly allowance in her "Giving" jar (and sometimes she does this with gifted money).

• And her joyful giving to others . . . The first time she was ever taken out to spend her allowance savings, it was by her Grandma and she picked out a gift from the $1 section for everyone in the family except herself. Then she was worried that she might have missed someone and started through her list of friends until Grandma brought up that she should pick out something for herself.

• How often she takes a load off me by helping me with her younger brothers. Frequently I will come downstairs to find that she has dressed Braydon, made his bed, and sometimes she has even fed him breakfast! She gladly does housework like vacuuming, sets the table, helping me unload the dishwasher, cleaning mirrors and tiles etc.

• Last week a dear friend of ours came to babysit, who had never changed a diaper before. No worries, our daughter was right there to give her step by step instructions. (Conversely, I also discovered afterward that she is very good at making up new rules. That night she informed Christina that she and Braydon only had to eat two carrots at dinner time, could eat dinner while watching their Veggie Tales dvd, and that she was allowed to eat two and a half cookies for dessert. Huh??? Of course I had to keep from laughing when Christina shared this with me later.)

• And last week in the car, I was chiding Braydon for fussing over being woken up from his nap to go somewhere. The problem was that he had played about in his nap time rather than lying still to sleep. With the sweetest little voice Sofia-Maree chimed in, "Mommy, can I please tell Braydon something?" Then from a sweet to a sweet-authoritative tone, she continued, "Braydon, when I was a little girl, your age, I used to do the same thing. But I didn't have brothers. You have to stay in bed because then you're obeying Jesus." Too cute!

• I'll never forget another incident in the car when Sofia-Maree was our only child. She was not even two years old with a growing but small vocabulary. I had explained to Sofia-Maree that her hands and feet were made to use for Jesus; to show his love to other people. I really had no idea what she understood from what I was telling her. Then over a week later we were in the car when I experienced a moment of sadness and found myself sniffling as I was driving. From the backseat, I heard her little voice say, "Mommy sad?" to which I answered, "Yes, a little sad." Then I thought I heard the words, "Jesus' hand!" Of course I had to clarify because I had never heard her say the name Jesus before. "Sofia-Maree what did you say?" As I turned to glance at her, I could see her reaching out toward me as far as she could to offer me her tiny hand. A second time she spoke the words, "Jesus' hand!" Oh! Who would have thought that God would send the love and comfort of Jesus to me through the hands and heart of my little girl!

I marvel at this goodness from the hand of our Father. Children are one of his most beautiful gifts in this life. May we train them up in righteousness for his wonderful name's sake and be in awe of him for all eternity!

Praise the LORD, O my soul;

all my inmost being, praise his holy
name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul,

and forget not all his benefits-
who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your
life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies
your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Psalm 103:1-5