It has been amazing to me to see the things my kids pick up on and imitate. It has made me be so careful about the kinds of influences I expose them to. And most of the time I have no idea how carefully they’re paying attention to the world around them. Just the other night as we were driving home from a visit with Grandma, we found ourselves in a sudden downpour. I was trying not to show that I was nervous about how little I could see of the road in front of me through the heavy rain, but I could sense that the kids were getting a little anxious, too. Over the sound of the pounding rain on the roof of the car I heard my son Josh yell, “Mommy! This is what that song was talking about! This is the storm!” and then he started singing Matt Redman’s song “You Never Let Go” which has the line “You never let go through the calm and through the storm” and he sang it all the way home. This isn’t an album we own at our home, it’s just something he’s heard on the radio as we’ve been out running errands or I’m making breakfast. It was so surprising to me that he’d picked up on that and then connected it to a real life moment.
I’d love to encourage you today to think about the influences your kids are exposed to daily. There are so many things we can’t control, but what about the things we can? Are we taking those opportunities to surround them with what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy? I want to be looking for opportunities to edify their little spirits in ways they can understand. Maybe that isn’t by reading them John Piper or Elizabeth Elliot just yet. Maybe it means I endure a little more “Veggie Tales” and my worn out copies of “Psalty the Singing Songbook“ than I would prefer. But if it helps my kids come to understand the importance of knowing God, it will all be worth it.