The more I am with my children, the more I love them- which I don’t know how it is possible! The more I see their characters, the more childlike I want to become. Is that even possible when there is a socially acceptable model for adult living? Aka: Boring!
I want to share some beautiful quotes from my beautiful Bethany:
On seeing the volcanoes on TV: Why are there volcanoes? Can we get a plane and fly to see the volcano? Will the Volcano be on fire? Why did God make Volcanoes?
-After the first few minutes of questioning, I felt out of my depth! And to think I taught science to Y3/4 and we included volcanoes in one topic. I taught her everything I knew, magma, molten lava etc. But then we had to look into why there was ash rather than lava…! She said yesterday “God wants to make another volcano”!!!!!!!!! Right Beth. Let’s just hope it’s in an uninhabitable place where it doesn’t affect planes or my parents returning from Finland, or my sister going on her honeymoon part deux.
At bedtime: Mummy please pray so that the bads don’t come. (‘bads’ is a generic term for bears, scary people in shops-in her opinion- you get it) So I tried to get her to tell me about the bads she was worried about: “Oh the bads outside, you know Mama, hiding in the cave!” No babe, I don’t know who’s hiding in the cave. That’s pretty scary… Yes of course we can pray! After I prayed, she said ‘thanks, they’ve gone now’ I love the way that she has such faith. I wish I had faith like a child. Like Beth. She honestly doesn’t have any doubt when it comes to praying. She expects instant results. I guess I don’t. Not everytime. Do you? I totally need to be more child like in faith. Sounds biblical 
Then there’s Ben. His words are still so cute. His little voice saying ‘shoe, stairs, down, door, stink(whilst holding his nose!), Bess(Beth, isn’t that adorbs!) and a few more…. But mainly it’s his character that can overwhelm me. We were in ‘fake’ Starbucks (yes, really. If you’ve been there, you know where it is!!). And Ben walked over to a Grandpa and started babbling to him. Ben went and got some toys and took them to him. Then he saw some ladies talking and went and said ‘haaaaa’ (hi). They ignored him. The Grandpa however was really interested in Ben, talking back and sharing his toys. Ryan and I were close by watching. We decided it would be amazing if your first impression of people was that they would totally be interested in you, that they would want to play with you, talk to you, that they would think you were the best.
Honestly, imagine walking into a coffee shop and talking to anyone who you saw? Telling them what you’d been up to. Being interested in them. Suggesting things to them. People would either talk to you. Or not. Life would be so much more fun. Imagine, the shopping trip talking to everyone in the cake aisle, maybe you do already. I talk to a handful of people every shopping trip but that’s mainly because of the children… Talking to everyone? It would be like being in Church. Maybe that’s the model Ben has learned. We talk to everyone in our Coffee Shop at Church. Everyone (Well, almost!) makes a fuss about Ben and his cute looks (BLESSED!) and he loves it. He does not have a concept for people not liking him. I wish I were more like Ben. More childlike. More interested in the small things. The detail. The chaos!
I was telling our friends about the way Ben will play with the toy cooker and place a teapot in the cupboard and close the door. Then look around for approval and clap himself. My friend said ‘oh, I have lost the wonder of tidying the kitchen’. I know. Haven’t we! Imagine if I did a big dance after loading the dishwasher, or had a cheer when the washing machine was turned on, or shouted ‘yippeeeeee’ and expected applause for dusting. Yes, housework would be more fun. Have you lost the wonder?!
Looking forward to being more childlike. love xoxox
