Terrible Twos and Parrot Phase
I have a two year old niece, who is full of energy and love. Her vocabulary is growing by the day, which is both exciting and amusing because her pronunciation is sometimes wrong. But what has been most clear is that she only says words that she hears frequently at home. I think that along with the terrible twos comes the parrot phase, where she literally repeats everything that we say.
She goes to day care now and she seems to be loving it. But once in a while she comes back with a couple new words in her vocabulary. Sometimes it takes us a while to figure out where she learns these new words, especially if they are words that we hardly use around the house.
This has me thinking that God as our Father wants to fill our minds, hearts and mouths with His Word. When we come to Him and say words that He has not taught us, I imagine He gets just as surprised as my family does when my niece comes home with new vocab that we didn't teach her.
Sometimes the new words let us in on how she behaves in class. For example, when she came back saying the words "sit down!" We realised that she probably doesn't sit in class. Isn't it funny that even when people don't know who we hang out with, at least they know what they sound like by the way that we speak?
Too often we allow despair and sorrow to whisper in our ears for too long. To the point where we end up repeating those words in our prayers. "Lord, I'm not good enough. I don't know how You could love someone like me." Can you imagine God's shock?! Those are not words that He has said to us, so why do we bring them home or even buy into them?
The Bible, from beginning to end, speaks of God's love for us. Stories of how He loved imperfect people just like you and me. Who are you listening to? Who are you allowing to whisper in your ear? And whose words hold the most power in your mind?
If we were all two year olds in the parrot phase. What would you be saying?
She goes to day care now and she seems to be loving it. But once in a while she comes back with a couple new words in her vocabulary. Sometimes it takes us a while to figure out where she learns these new words, especially if they are words that we hardly use around the house.
This has me thinking that God as our Father wants to fill our minds, hearts and mouths with His Word. When we come to Him and say words that He has not taught us, I imagine He gets just as surprised as my family does when my niece comes home with new vocab that we didn't teach her.
Sometimes the new words let us in on how she behaves in class. For example, when she came back saying the words "sit down!" We realised that she probably doesn't sit in class. Isn't it funny that even when people don't know who we hang out with, at least they know what they sound like by the way that we speak?
Too often we allow despair and sorrow to whisper in our ears for too long. To the point where we end up repeating those words in our prayers. "Lord, I'm not good enough. I don't know how You could love someone like me." Can you imagine God's shock?! Those are not words that He has said to us, so why do we bring them home or even buy into them?
The Bible, from beginning to end, speaks of God's love for us. Stories of how He loved imperfect people just like you and me. Who are you listening to? Who are you allowing to whisper in your ear? And whose words hold the most power in your mind?
If we were all two year olds in the parrot phase. What would you be saying?