A Toddler

     This week I have been visiting my grandson and his parents. He is almost one and a half. He has matured in the ten or so weeks since i saw him last. He is much steadier on his feet although occasionally he tries to go two directions at once. He is far less picky in his eating habits and far better at solving problems. Although he really does not speak he understands basic instructions. He was looking for a particular toy. I said it is behind the chair and, sure enough, he went behind the chair and found it. If he wants me to read books, which he enjoys, he will gather them and bring them to me.
   Yesterday we went to an outdoor organic farmer's market. A musician was playing with a large jar on a stool in front of him for free will donations. My grandson's mother gave him a dollar bill to place in the jar. He walked towards it with no further instruction but stopped when the man laughed. I went and placed a dollar in the jar. Then my grandson put his in with no further hesitation.
    He is absorbing everything around him. These are the key years in a child's life when they are most teachable and malleable.Will we attempt to teach them with our puny human intellects or the current cultural understanding or will we rely on the timeless wisdom of God the Father who made us in His image? ( Genesis 1:26) Proverbs is filled with admonitions and instruction for us. For example 4:1 begins, "Hear, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight, for I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments and live." (Proverbs 4:1-4 ESV) Or "Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching..." ( Proverbs 1:8)
   As I see the balance between the stability and firmness of his dad and the patience and tenderness of his mother, I see the hand of God working in my grandson's life.