What's More Important?

This is taken (with permission of course!) from a friend of mine's family blog. I was so encouraged after reading this....

I've been trying to spend time with Ru [their 2 1/2 year old daughter] each night before she goes to bed 'cuddling'. In fact, each night before bedtime she says, "I want my daddy to cuddle with me!" And she gets upset if we have to skip it. We spend the time chatting about the day that's past and talking about what tomorrow might bring, and then we pray. We've had some sweet times together. She's used that time to open up about some things that she's been feeling, like when she told me the other night that someone had thrown a pillow at her. The someone was me. I'd thrown it at her while we were playing tag and chasing each other around the room. I'd thrown it kind of hard, and even though I'd apologized, I gathered it had hurt her feelings more than she'd previously let on. So we made peace again and prayed together. She also tells me about things that she's excited about, like someone coming over to play or going to preschool. And we come up with things and people to pray for. It's really quite cool.

I've also been finding out just what Ru knows about God and what she doesn't. She's been on a mommy and daddy kick lately, asking "What's Maddo's daddy's name?" and "What's Alex's mommy's name?" and "Daddy, what's you're daddy's name?", etc. Last night I asked her what Jesus' daddy's name was. She answered pretty quickly, "God". And then when I asked her what God's daddy's name was, she also answered "God". So I got to try my hand at explaining to a not quite three year old how God is different than ever other person in that he has no beginning and no end.

I'm often impressed with how these simple conversations present opportunities to teach profound lessons (both to Ru and to me). Today she asked me to read her a story and brought over a big children's bible we have. I asked her if she knew what the book was about and she said "God". Score one for Ru! But then we were about half way through the story and she became distracted and started fighting with her brother over a toy. We have a rule and a principle that we're learning in our home that goes like this, "people are more important than things". I find myself often asking Ru, "What's more important, toys or your brother?" She doesn't always get the answer right, but we keep asking the question. But in this moment, I asked a new question. I said, "Ru, what's more important, learning about God or being nice to your brother?" I think she really thought about it for a bit and said, "learning about God." To which I replied, "No Ru. We can learn all we want about God, but if we're don't love people, if we're not nice to our brother, it doesn't matter." And then I thought, "Wow, how did I just put that together so easily and do I live that?" I'm learning that God really wants to see Ru know the truth and he's empowering me towards that end.

My girl can be really fun and she can be really tough sometimes too. But I love her. I love her because she looks like me, because she acts like me, and because she likes to be around me. But most of all, I love her because I love what happens when I take the time to get to know her - I get to learn about love itself, by teaching her what I know and watching it reflected in her! So please keep praying for us, that we'll keep growing up together, learning together to love and bless each other and the world around us.