While I sure miss my four year-old, Josh, while he’s at preschool a couple mornings a week, it has been great to see how much he has learned in that new environment. In our home he is the oldest and is always giving his younger siblings little nuggets of wisdom. Like the other day when Danny knocked down the fort Josh had created and Josh told him, “You are a mean boy and when you grow up no one will want to MARRY YOU!!” Josh, being the romantic that he is, considered that to be the sternest warning he could give that Danny needed to turn from his wicked ways.
So it has been interesting to see how he handles not being the oldest kid in his class and actually having to have a teachable heart. The other day he was pointing out some shapes to me and said, ”Mommy, that shape is a square and that one is a triangle and that one is an O.” I knew they had been working on shape recognition at preschool so I said, “Wow, Josh! Did you learn that at preschool?” To which he responded, “No. . . I just already knowed that. I knowed that with my spidey sense.” Maybe we’ve played one too many games of Spiderman in this house. I know it’s just easier for him to say he already knew something than to admit that he had to be taught. Sounds like somebody else I know. . . It sounds like me!
How often would I rather be the one giving advice than the one asking for help? When I’ve gained some insight from someone with more wisdom than I have, wouldn’t I rather say I already “knowed” it with my spidey sense than humble myself and be truly teachable? I love that in the Old Testament the Israelites are referred to as a “stiff-necked people”. What a fantastic visual of what pride and an unteachable heart look like. And I think those of us who struggle with some stiff-necked tendencies have learned it’s awfully hard not to trip and fall when you refuse to bow your head and look where you’re going. I want to be less reliant on my spidey sense and more teachable as God continues to help me know exactly how much I don’t know!