Holding My Breath

I think a lot of parents of preschoolers know what it's like to hold their breath as their child opens his mouth to say something, when the parent doesn't know what the kid is going to say, but knows there is a good chance it may be something outrageous. Yeah, we've had those moments too.

Every Sunday, in fact.

For the past few months we've been attending a new church. Caleb sits patiently with us for the first part of the church service, then goes up front with the other children for a lesson time before being dismissed to his Sunday school class. It's this children's story time at the front of the sanctuary that has us holding our breath each week.

Caleb is one of the youngest children to take part.  The majority of the kids are several years older, and depending on who is giving the lesson, some story times are more geared toward the older kids than the younger.  Some teachers solicit more child participation than others. But Caleb always eagerly listens and engages.  And in his wonderful, 5 year old way he participates.  Every week we hear him chiming in to answer a question or share his thoughts.  He is not shy at all.  On more than one occasion his comments have had the adults laughing heartily.  Like last week, when the teacher, illustrating the parable of the lost sheep, brought in a jar full of cotton balls and then intentionally spilled them.  The children helped clean up the mess, and then the teacher pretended there was one cotton ball still missing.  Caleb was sincerely concerned about this last cotton ball and stood up, tugging at his shirt, and said, "Wait, maybe one of them jumped into my pocket." And when the teacher spoke about the shepherd continuing to search for the lost sheep, Caleb shared how that was similar to the way he helped his brother search for his missing wrist watch.

So, yes, on the one hand I am holding my breath during the children's story time, not know what in the world my son might share with the group while he is up front.  But at the same time, I am loving it.  I love his innocence, his genuine interest in the story time, the way he connects new information to his past experiences, and especially the way he is comfortable being the wonderful 5 year old that God made him to be.  It's pretty neat.