by Martha Singleton
Riding home from church one Sunday I was digging around in my 2½ -year-old grandson’s bag to find his water when I came across his Sunday School paper.
It was a line drawing of a “Bible times” house with a palm tree, featuring one woman handing a cloak to another. Both were smiling. It had been elevated to the level of fine art by my grandson’s brilliant application of green crayon. Being myself a child of the 60s, I thought it was pretty cool that he felt no need to stay inside the lines.
“Josiah, I like this picture! Did you color it?” I asked him.
Lowering the sippy cup, he reached over and pointed to different objects on the page.
“Tree. House,” he told me. But he continued. “Dorcas. Coat. Share. Jesus.”
I made a mental note to encourage my son-in-law, who is the children’s pastor, to commend Josiah’s Sunday School teacher for really getting the lesson across to toddlers. I then exchanged a glance with my husband in the rearview mirror that celebrated our grandparently idea that this kid was amazingly brilliant and continued to talk with Josiah about the story the rest of the way home.
Applying the Word 101
On Wednesday, Josiah was sitting at his Buzz Lightyear table enjoying his caffeine-free soda and cheese snacks when Uncle Matt dropped by. Grabbing the snack bag off the counter, Matt pulled his chair up to the little table, and started popping those orange-colored goodies as he offered to take Josiah, or “JJ,” out for some T-ball practice.
Now, playing ball with Uncle Matt is one of Josiah’s most favorite things, but I noticed that he was distracted, watching the cheese curls move from the bag to his uncle’s mouth.
Finally, he pointed to the bag, and told Matt, “My Cheetos!”
Startled, his uncle lowered the bag. “I’m sorry, buddy,” he said.
Recognizing a golden opportunity, I asked Josiah, “Do you remember the story of Dorcas?”
“Jesus,” he told me.
“And how did she make Jesus happy?” I asked.
“Share.”
“Do you think Jesus would be happy for you to share your snacks with Uncle Matt?”
With that, Josiah picked up his bowl, and offered it to his uncle.
As he enthusiastically took one, thanked Josiah profusely, and popped it into his mouth, it didn’t seem like the right moment to tell Matt that JJ had already licked the cheese off of all of the ones in the bowl. I just let him discover that soggy goodness for himself.
That night, when Josiah’s mom walked next door with a bowl of taco salad for the neighbor whose husband is in Afghanistan, she let Josiah carry the bag of tortilla chips.
“We are sharing our food with Amanda’s family, because she is sad that her daddy is far away, and we want her and her mommy to know that Jesus loves them,” Annie told him. “Just like Dorcas, we share because it’s what Jesus wants us to do.”
In Setting Up Stones, we discuss ways in which parents and grandparents can, in the midst of daily living, intentionally point our children toward a relationship with Jesus and a lifetime of living for Him.
Certainly it is important to take our children to church worship services, but the lessons taught there move from being a picture on a piece of paper to being attitudes of the heart only as they are lived out at home in front of even the youngest of our children.
The high calling of our parenting is being ever alert to opportunities to turn the daily into the divine!
Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night.—Deuteronomy 6:6–8 (The Message)
Martha and Greg Singleton have, for more than 30 years, met the challenges of balancing successful professional careers in journalism and marketing while raising a faith-filled family (a son, Matt, and a daughter, Annie). Together, they creatively share their experiences and insights on family life at conferences, seminars, workshops, churches of various denominations, schools, and businesses. They live in San Antonio, Texas.
Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
