This rainy day got me thinking of… Umbrellas!!!
One of my son’s first words was umbrella. Yup, umbrella! It was his third word.
I remember thinking, or hoping “Mama” would come next after “Dad.” However, Elmo came second and then… umbrella 🧐
I was stumped. I barely used that word. In fact, I barely used umbrellas! Had my son even seen a real umbrella? At that time, I was unknowingly battling with PTSD after my son’s anaphylactic reaction and learning of his MANY food allergies. So if I’m being honest, I avoided going anywhere really at that time.
Therefore, it was was sooooo bizarre to me that he would learn, and say such a word so early on. Umbrella!?!?
Recently, almost six years later, I was sharing this with my son and we were laughing at the randomness and silliness of it. We thought maybe it was because we love the beach and he learned it from beach umbrellas.
Then, I thought about it more…
What we see is what we learn. What we turn our eyes to and fill our days with becomes what our minds learn, whether we like it or not, where it’s true or not. It is why it is so important for us to spend time filling our minds with the hope and truth of God‘s word. It is why reading the Bible transforms and renews us. It is why we must fill and teach our children this too.
Now, how does this relate to umbrellas and TJ learning it as his 3rd word?
Well, in our old house, we had cave crickets, what we called jumpy bugs. Once a week one would get into his toy box in the basement. At the time not being a fan of insects, I would take an umbrella from the closet and trap them that way. That way I didn’t need to touch it or risk touching it.
As I laughed at the process back then, I had no idea that my son, barely only 1, was watching too. He was watching enough to even learn the word!
Kids learn what we show them. They learn what we feed their minds with. They learn what they see. However, we learn that way too.
We must feed our minds with God’s truth…and the rest will follow.
“The Art of a Messy House” series is one way to do this, starting with book 1, “How to Be Kind.”
The Art of a Messy House 