10 lessons from a three-year-old

10 lessons from a three-year-old

1. Being silly is a good vacation from being serious.

2. When you’re playing with the hose, just play with the hose. Don’t worry about what you’re going to do next.

3. If you need help, ask for it.

4. There’s nothing better than listening to a good story.

5. If you miss somebody special, it’s okay to cry.

6. When you don’t like the plan, offer a compromise.

7. If you can’t figure out where the puzzle pieces go, don’t get upset. Just play with something else instead.

8. If you love somebody, hug him and tell him you love him.

9. When you feel very happy, sing.

10. ‘Tomorrow’ and ‘next summer’ and ‘in half an hour’ don’t make nearly as much sense as ‘right now.’

“Always the world was fresh to him, as it is fresh to children and to the very mature. . . .” Katherine Bregy

“[I]n the wide-open spaces of God’s grace. . . .” Romans 5:2 

sleepwalking

     Sleepwalkers don’t just walk. They talk and drive cars and cook meals and write checks. They look wide awake, but they aren’t. They’re just going through the motions.

      It’s easy to slip into sleepwalking. I do it sometimes. I look like I’m wide awake, but I’m not. I’m just going through the motions. Ho-hum. Same-old-same-old. Dusty and dry.

     Sometimes I wake up on my own, and sometimes something “bad” wakes me up--a health scare or a relational crisis or whatever. Waking up changes everything. When I’m wide awake, things like getting out of bed in the morning and sitting at my desk and folding laundry don’t seem mundane anymore. In fact, when I’m wide awake, there is no mundane.

“You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy. . . .” Isaiah 26:19

“now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened” e.e. cummings 

report card

     Our preschooler got his report card yesterday. It said, “Your child brings this special quality to our class: . . . ,” and then the teacher describes the special quality. Our little guy apparently brings “a sense of wonder and excitement.”

     So I’ve been wondering this morning--what would my report card say?

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein

“[T]he place where you are standing is holy ground.” Exodus 3:5

let it begin with me

     Years ago, I was complaining to a friend about someone else’s shortcomings. She did me a big favor. Instead of commiserating, she said this: “Whenever you point a finger at somebody else, there are three fingers pointing back at you.” I need to remember that today. If things need to change, let it begin with me.

“Thy kingdom come [in my life]. Thy will be done [in my life]. . . . Forgive [me]. . . .” Matthew 6:10

“God, grant me . . . the courage to change the things I can. . . .” Serenity prayer

a good and risky business

     Really listening to somebody is a good and risky business. You open all your doors and windows. You welcome him in. You lean in (sometimes literally). Your defenses are down. You loosen your grip on being right. You risk being changed by what you hear. It’s a win-win.

“[T]o listen is to lean in, softly, with a willingness to be changed by what we hear.” Mark Nepo

“Be hospitable to one another. . . .” 1 Peter 4:9            

mere trimmings

     I have a favorite shrub. Most of the time, it looks plain and leggy and boring and colorless, but it isn’t. I know, because for a few weeks every spring I see its beauty bursts out. It dresses up in its party clothes--small, salmon blossoms that give me joy. So, when I see it looking plain and leggy and boring and colorless during its off-season, I just smile and say, “That’s okay. I know better.”

“I suppose . . . Rose’s husband seems to you just an ordinary, good-natured, middle-aged man. . . . Just a rather red, rather round man. . . . He isn’t. . . . Rose sees through all that. That’s mere trimmings. She sees what we can’t see, because she loves him.” Elizabeth Von Armin, Enchanted April

“[L]ove one another.” John 15:12

Father, today I accept your kind invitation to see through people’s mere trimmings.