imitating Someone else

If you want a true, albeit exaggerated, mirror of yourself, just hire a two-year old.

Little Bitty will squeal, "Mommeeeeeeeee...I missed youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!" when I pick her up from Parents' Day Out. I asked B why she does that.

Because you do, he answered.

No, I don't.

Yes, you do. he grinned at me.

And, in fact, I do.

She's a sponge of all my quirks and then some, the "some" mostly being jingles from television shows. She's learned all the words to the Beatles, "Rocky Raccoon," Jason Mraz's, "I'm Yours," and thankfully, a few "Jesus Songs," as we call them around here.

So, why can't she memorize Scripture as well?

She can. And she has!

So far, we've gotten two verses down, and *ahem* mommy is even more excited that she's learning these verses herself.

I've approached this memorization two different ways. The first, I learned from Tiffany, JD's wife, which is saying the verse in a singsong voice. This is how we memorized Psalm 121:1, 2 .

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
from where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

I would say it when we're riding in the car, coloring, or doing whatever. She picked this up really, really fast. Maybe even faster than *ahem* mommy.

The other method I used was drawing symbols that represented the words of the verse. Ava has been telling me lately about birds (the bird in the sky, mommy!), so I found a verse that talked about "birds in the air." I have sad, sad, sad drawing skills, but I drew it all out and posted near her little table and chairs.



This is Matthew 6:26:
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

We have memorized it this way for better two-year-old understanding (as much as she can understand, anyway):

Look at the birds in the air!
They don't plant.
They don't harvest.
They don't store food in barns.
Our Heavenly Father feeds them.
And how much more does He love you!

Puleease don't laugh at my drawing. Okay, you can laugh, but only because it's pretty doubtful that I can hear you.

This is a more complicated verse, but when we say it, I point to the pictures. She doesn't get it exactly right everytime, but she makes up her own version. When we see a bird outside, I will point to it and say the first part of the verse, "Look at the bird in the air!" She will usually say the rest to me. I'm praying that these will be written on her heart, no matter where she goes in life.

And finally, a tweet from Amy directed me to Songs for Saplings - cute, folk music where the singers (along with kids) sing through Scriptures using the alphabet ("a" is for "Keep me in the apple of your eye."-Psalm 17:8). I received the CD in the mail today and played one of the songs a mere three times before Ava picked up the verse.

Our children are amazing!