Eyes of a Child

Follow Me as I follow Christ.  1 Corinthians 11:1

Imitate:  Take or follow as a model.

You want to know some of the habits and traits that you have?  You want to know how other people see the things you are doing?  Then have a child.  You truly never understand some of the quirks that you have until you see your son start to act the same way and do the same things.  In some ways this is awesome, but then other times you want to scream and say to them, “Where did you learn that?  Did Mommy teach you that?”

The more you watch these habits though, the more you realize you are the one who is guilty of these actions your son is now imitating.  In the same sense though it can be an unbelievable thing when you see your son picking up on things you do that make you as a dad super proud.

Linds and I have always been ones to stop and pray before we eat.  We gather around the island in the kitchen with Eli up in his highchair.   So here we are grabbing hands, closing our eyes, and thanking God for the food before us.  After a few weeks of this we begin to notice Eli starting to do the same thing.  He is about 8 months old, grabbing our hands and closing his eyes.  Now at this age, he is at the point where he will get up in his highchair, look at us and say, “PWAY” as he closes his eyes and folds his hands.  We didn’t teach him that, he caught it from us.

Another example is with Linds cleaning up the house.  Eli loves being like mommy, go into the closet and get the Swiffer out himself as Linds gets the vacuum out.  He sees her cleaning and he wants to help, to the point he has his own cleaning tools.

Sometimes, this can be incredible to watch and makes you extremely proud. Other times, it can drive you nuts to be completely honest.  Last week, I was trying to paint in the hall.  So here I am, on the stepladder, trying to reach the high spots.  As I’m up there, I start hear a dripping behind me.  My first thought was we must have a water leak so I start searching for it.  Nothing, thank goodness.  Then I look down and see Eli smiling away, a second paintbrush in his hand with brown paint up to the handle.  He is shaking it up and down making a painting motion as paint flung all over the hallway, down the front of him, through his hair and all over the floor.  I wanted to get mad but all I could do was laugh, because he just imitating his daddy.  So I called for Linds and she came in helping me get him cleaned up.  We learned the valuable lesson to keep things such as paintbrushes high and out of his reach.

One of the craziest ways I have seen Eli imitate Lindsey and I is in our words.  We have a 100 lb lab/st. bernard mix puppy (or bear to many) and he has to be one of the neediest dogs ever.  I swear it is nonstop whining and crying, wanting in and out.  There are times when Eli will be crying, Bomber wants out and all you can do is mumble something at him telling him in a subtle way to go sit down and hush up.  The next thing you know Eli is saying the same exact thing, “hush, hush.”  He hears our words and then starts repeating them, like we have our own little parrot in the room.  What words are we teaching him?

It has truly been a lesson for me though in being an example for him in my faith.  If I want to see him become a man of prayer, I have to be that example of a man who prays myself.  If I want to see him learn to read Scripture, I better be reading it myself.  If I want to see Eli learn to be a man who cares for others, who gives, who leads, and the list goes on, I better be ready to allow him to see my example.  Like the old saying goes, “more is caught than taught.”

I can only imagine Eli saying to me one day, “Well dad, I don’t see you doing those things.” How convicting would that be for you?  I know my heart would break.  I want to be that example for my child. How about you?

Now when we are at the church, during worship, I will holding Eli in my arms and he will raise his hands over his head.  What a moment for a dad, he may not be able to sing yet or know the words, but he has seen his daddy and mommy in worship raising their hands.

I believe that is exactly what Paul is talking about here is this passage, saying to the Corinthians, look at my example.  Follow me as I follow.  I can only imagine the Corinthian people looking at him and saying, “but Paul we don’t see that example in you.”  He had to live what he taught himself.

We live in a culture now though where we use the excuse or the line, “do as I say, not as I do.”  It doesn’t work that way with kids.  They learn what they see.  They do as you do.  Good and bad.

One final thought though, is for someone to imitate you they have to spend time with you.  For you to imitate Christ, you have to spend time with Him.  You want your kids to learn to spend time with Christ, you have to learn what that means yourself and set that example.  Imitation comes from being around someone, watching them, and doing as they do.

I can only wait and see the things that Eli picks up on from Linds and I’s example.  I hope and pray most of what he does will be good traits but I know along the way we will fail at times, so please take a moment and pray for us as we try and be an example for him and for others.  While you’re at it, pray for the example you ‘re being.