From the mouth of babes

Toddlers and pre-schoolers burst with enthusiastic interpretations of the world and the words and lessons they hear.
My nephew’s wife, agreed to share some unique moments from her oldest child’s year as a three-year-old.
Car trips with her only son and his little sisters include listening to “Toddler Bible Songs” on CD.
One chorus is a peppy,
“I’m gonna sing, sing, sing
I’m gonna shout, shout, shout
I’m gonna sing, I’m gonna shout
Praise the Lord!
When those gates are opened wide,
I’m gonna sit at Jesus’ side
I’m gonna sing, I’m gonna shout,
Praise the Lord!”
About half-way through this chorus the pre-schooler remarked, “This must the song Peter sang when he tried to walk on the water,.”
“Huh?” his mother asked.
“Well, it says ‘I’m gonna sink, sink, sink … ’”
• • •
He wasn’t sinking, but the little fellow did get wet as he held out his cup for his mother to fill it with water from a pitcher. Mid-stream he turned away to take a sip. Water poured over the floor, splashing his little body.
“Oh, dear!” he said.
“How do you suppose that water got all over the floor?” his mother asked.
Very carefully, but very seriously, he answered, “Well, Mommy, I think you made that mess.”
• • •
‘Mommy’ taught her son the Biblical story of Ananias and Sapphira who sold their property and donated some of the money to the church, kept the rest for themselves, but told everyone they had donated all of the money. Checking to see if ‘Sonny’ understood the lesson, she proposed a scenario as an object lesson using the sale of a no longer used dog pen.
She asked her tot to pretend that he would receive all the money from the sale, started to hand him a pile of coins, but mid-transaction took out a sizable handful of coins and put them into her own pocket.
“Mommy! You have not lied to men, but to God!” the child scolded echoing Peter’s condemnation and proving he had learned the lesson.
• • •
Near the end of reading through “Little House” series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, the pre-schooler learned, to his astonishment, that Laura married Almanzo.
He obviously thought about that quite a bit because as he rode in the back seat of the car, he mused aloud, “Mommy, I just can’t stop wondering who I’m going to marry.” He will have a while before he discovers the answer to that question.
• • •
During story time at the library, his mother sometimes wishes he were still in the back seat of their car and not out in public.
Last fall the story lady asked, “Who knows what tomorrow is?”
“Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnn!!” screamed all the children – except my nephew’s son, who yelled, “Tuesday!” – which was also a correct answer.
“And now, I’m going to read a story about Pete,” the story lady began. “He’s in a bad mood. Do any of you ever get in a bad mood?” she scanned the room and made eye contact with our little star who responded eagerly, “No, but my mommy does!”
• • •
After a long, long day with two pre-schoolers and a baby many mommies get in a bad mood. After one such day with an overflow of childish arguments, ‘Mommy’ took a deep breath and turned to her son. “Mommy is feeling very frustrated with you because of all this arguing and fighting.”
“Well, Mommy, you can pray and ask God to help you not feel frustrated, can’t you?” he asked.
From the mouths of babes comes much truth.