Are They Listening?

If you’ve ever worked with kids, you know there are many moments when you wonder if they hear a word you say. If you’re a parent, you wonder that every single day. How many times do I have to tell Emry to use the potty? Or be careful on the steps? Or not lean on Ethan? This generation doesn’t understand, but I sound like a broken record.

So it’s hard for us to realize that kids are truly listening, more than we could ever imagine. We hear it as they repeat something we said, often something we wish we hadn’t said! And they are taking those things and connecting them to the little world they know. Sometimes in rather astounding ways.

Several weeks ago, we were at church. Emry goes to church service with us 98% of the time. She is a handful to deal with. She doesn’t like to sit still for over an hour, and she has never been one of those kids who will fall asleep in your lap (or anywhere else except her own bed). So keeping her quietly occupied once the singing is over and the sermon has begun is a fulltime job. But her being in the service is important to me, especially when her Sunday school class doesn’t yet have Bible stories or anything. Part of being at church is hearing God’s Word. But, yes, I do often wonder if the wiggling girl I’m trying to keep quiet is hearing one Word. And yet…

Our pastor has been preaching through the book of John. He was talking about parables and how they are used to teach very important and very real lessons. He used the example of the prophet Nathan who comes to King David after David commits adultery with Bathsheba. Nathan tells a story, one that makes David so angry he doesn’t even realize Nathan is talking about him. As our pastor read the story Nathan tells, he emphasized the end when Nathan relates the story to David and declares, “You are the man!” Emry, busily coloring, repeats “The man!”. She then looks  up, points to Ethan who is fast asleep in his car seat and declares, “Little Man!” Then she goes back to coloring.

I almost laughed out loud. Did Emry have any idea what the story the prophet Nathan told hundreds of years ago meant? Likely not. She doesn’t quite understand stealing and she certainly doesn’t understand committing adultery. Who knows if she even heard half the story. But she did hear words that she could relate to her little world. For our nickname for Ethan is “Little Man”. To her, the words she heard meant her baby brother. To me, they meant she was actually listening!

No, Emry doesn’t yet understand a whole sermon. And, yes, my Sunday morning exercise program of keeping Emry quiet and still is the most challenging of my week. But when I hear her repeat the Word she has just heard, I find that it’s worth it. One day, Lord willing, these Words she is hearing will relate to herself and she will be saved.