This is what I heard….

August 26th, 2008

in a very loud voice!

“I WILL FEAR NO EVIL FOR YOU ARE WITH ME!” over and over. Our youngest was having his quiet, alone time and was acting something out with a play sword. I have been working on the 23rd Psalm with the children. Each day, we go over another portion and find a beautiful photographic image to go with each section. Then we recite the portion we have memorized.

It is true, that if you feed your children good mental food to eat, they will grow big and strong. Oh I am sure the Charlotte Mason says it much more eloquently and flowery, but that is the basic concept. I think it is interesting that our youngest is resonating with this portion of the Psalm. He is very brave for his young age. Really people you have no idea!

We tell him often:

• Yes son, I know you are big, but you can’t work with matches. That is very dangerous I don’t care how many big kids (teenagers in our church) you saw doing it at the fourth of July.
  • (Matches and all flame starting devices are now banned from our home. Some of you may find it cruel that I pulled up stories on the computer, thanks to Google, about how children burned their houses down, and killed their entire family because they played with matches. My older 2 were crying their eyes out. For them, all I would have to say is, they are dangerous and no problem, with Hudson I have to go 500 extra miles for his little brain to get it.)
• Honey, we know you are very big, but you are still only 3 and you can’t use sharp knifes yet, no matter how well you think you can use them.
  • (Knives are now hidden on the top shelf of our cabinet and even I have to use a stool to get them. )
• Honestly child, I know you are very, very brave, but you may never, ever ride your bike away from home looking for your Mommy.
  • (Mommy was upstairs taking a shower, and then realized you were gone. I went out frantically looking for you, not ever thinking to check the gated pool. This was a big mix up in communication. Mike and Chloe went out for the morning and left the boys with me. Hudson assumed I left with Mike, and since he knows he isn’t old enough to stay home by himself, he decided to go and try and find us- dear child. I am now coloring my gray hair)
• I know you are strong and brave, but you can’t prop your bike up against a 6 foot high fence, then climb up on your bike and jump on top of the fence, in order to get a better view of the whole neighborhood, in search of your Mommy, who is now calling 911, hyperventilating, screaming your name like a maniac. Thankfully, you jumped down into the gated pool area, were contained and then found by a neighbor because you couldn’t get out again. I knew, I knew, I KNEW what I was doing when I started you in the pool at 6 months and started teaching you to swim. By 2, you could swim like Michael Phelps.
  • (I had an all points bulletin search going, with several cars canvasing the neighborhood. Our dog walking neighbor found him in a place I would of never thought to look. Inside a child proof gated pool. Ha - so much for child proofing.)
• Yes, I know you think you can handle watching the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe because you are very brave, but you are not old enough to handle CS Lewis’s epic. You have your whole life to see it. Let’s wait a year or two shall we?
  • He sees the cover of the DVD and sees the young boy with the sword the shield and is ready to fight and thinks it is all for him.

  

So we felt we were to name him Hudson Taylor for a reason. This child talks about seeing the world all the time, is obsessed with maps and randomly speaks of China fondly. Trust me we NEVER brought this stuff up to him. It is just coming out. Out of all our children, Hudson is the one who speaks of Peru often and wants to return, today as a matter of fact. I think that portion of the Psalm is God’s way of reminding me, that he is covering this child, and that I am digging my heals in and hanging on for dear life.

Entry Filed under: Kids and the Kingdom, Life