Repeat After Me

Tommy's vocabulary has increased tremendously in the past few months and it seems like every day he has some new words or phrases that he tries out. Some are great ("Tommy want a hug and a kiss?"), and some are not so great (asking for his "butt cream" when he's getting his diaper changed - totally my fault). Some are just bizzarre. The other day, he was watching his very favorite show of all time, Thomas and he heard the phrase, "Just then, Gordon thundered by." (Gordon is a train, for those of you playing at home) He ran up to me and started tugging on my shirt like he had to tell me something extremely important and said "Mommy, Godon funno by! Godon funno by!" I had no idea what he was talking about. It took a while before I realized it was just a line from Thomas. He'll still go around repeating that to people and they give him a blank stare.

I sometimes felt like that growing up. I was raised in church and I'm so thankful for that, but I think there are some things that just take a while for us to "get", spiritually. I had been taught things about salvation and God that were true, but I may not have understood the context of them. So when I went around proclaiming them, I confused people and then they in turn confused me when they'd challenge my statement!

These phrases like "God is good all the time, and all the time God is good", "Trust God", and even "Jesus loves me this I know" are all true and important phrases that we need to remember. But as I'm getting older, leaving my self imposed Christian bubble where it's like a controlled science experiment, and stepping out into real life, it's important to wrestle with those phrases. I always look to the Bible for my answers because I know that's the Truth, but I have to see God in the reality.

As I've grown in my faith, I realize that I have been afraid to question what God's been doing before. I've been afraid to be honest and tell Him that I have a hard time trusting right now and it seems easier to do things my way. I think maybe deep down I was afraid that He woudn't be able to handle it. But when I present all my mess to Him, it's amazing how He works. Sometimes it's really slow, sometimes it's immediate. But eventually it gives life to those "Trust God" phrases.

So as Tommy continues to learn these really odd phrases, we'll do our best to teach him the context behind them and then leave the rest up to experience. And we'll trust God to continue the faithfulness that's he's already shown him.