Words Matter...
Yesterday, we were walking the dog in the neighborhood when a 20 year old flew by on his skateboard. When we rounded the corner, he was in the parking lot, listening to his music. As soon as Biruk saw him he yelled out, "Hey little man! Whatcha doing???" The 20 year old gave me a puzzled look, took off his Beats, and Biruk repeated it again. "Hey little man! Whatcha doing?" A phrase often used by the teens in our youth group had now become one of Biruk's new phrases.
Kids soak up everything.
They soak up song lyrics, phrases we use at home, funny sayings we have, and in my house, any phrase, song lyric, or funny saying that is associated with veggie tales. And then they repeat it. In random places. In the least appropriate times. When you are trying to discipline and be serious. When you have company over. In the middle of dinner. At 12am when they should be sleeping. They soak up...and they regurgitate. And often you can't help but laugh.
A friend once told me that she prays prayers of blessing over her children before they go to bed each night. She prays what she hopes for them, what she dreams for them, and more importantly, what God has to say about them. She believes her words matter. When we first brought Biruk home, I couldn't wait to do that. The first few months it was almost surreal that I was praying a "blessing" over a child who after a seriously long journey had become a "blessing" to us, whose name actually means blessing! I knew he could hear me, but I had never really given much thought to how powerful words could be at such a young age.
Kids soak up everything.
Tonight, as I was getting Biruk ready for bed, we squished in a rocking chair and began to read a book together. It was actually a book that a youth pastor friend had made for Biruk when he came home. It's filled with pictures of our family, Ethiopia, our church and more. You lift up these little flap and name the items underneath. The first few pages are things like hands, feet, house, dog, etc. Biruk named them all. Then it came to family members. He named each one by name. Then it came to the map of Africa and he exclaimed "Epiopia (which by the way I love how he pronounces that)!" And then it came to a picture of Jesus.
Biruk pointed at the picture, looked up at me, and said, "That's Jesus. He's holding Biruk." When I looked closer at the picture, he was exactly right! It was a picture of Jesus with a bunch of kids, but the kid he was holding was a baby that looked exactly like Biruk. I had never noticed it before. Biruk had never said it before. He pointed to it again. "That's Jesus. He's holding Biruk."
That might seem insignificant, but even as I am typing this tonight, I have tears in my eyes.
What we say matters.
Kids soak up everything.
We aren't perfect parents...none of us ever will be. But we have been given this unbelievable task of pointing our kids in the direction of the one who loves us, sees something in us, and has a purpose for us in this world. Our kids are going to repeat A LOT of things over the course of our life. Some are going to be things we wished we would have never said. Some will be things that will make us really proud. Some will be things that we make us cringe and others will be things that bring us a deep seeded joy. Our words matter.
Biruk is only 29 months old, but he has certainly heard a lot over those short 29 months. Living in the Sawtelle house will do that to you. While he has already soaked up enough words and phrases to last a lifetime (so many of which I hope will never be repeated!), what I hope he hears most is this, "May you know that you are deeply loved by Jesus, he sees you, he knows you, and he has an unbelievable plan for your life." Because it's that Jesus that will hold him for the rest of his life.
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