like father like daughter…

I over-analyze things.  I used to blame it simply on the fact that “I’m a guy”, and we love being right all the time, and being critical about things that we hear.  But my daughter firmly put me in my place a couple days ago, and made me realize I may be passing on more to my daughters than I realized.  🙂  It was pretty cute, really, and I think I’m okay with the results so far.

We were sitting at the breakfast table, talking about the Bible verse our whole church is memorizing this week.  I’m thankful for the giant chalk board my wife Sarah acquired for just such purposes.  Sidenote: I’m even more thankful to be blessed by a wife/mother of our children who sees a chalkboard as a functional piece of dining room decor.  What would be better, a generic painting of flowers and a french cafe….or a chalkboard to teach our kids scripture during the everyday moments? 🙂  Take that, Martha Stewart.  I love my wife.

Back to the story:  This weeks’ verse is incredibly easy: “Pray Continually” from 1 Thessalonions 5:17.  I’m pretty sure we’ve got it all memorized.  The difficulty comes in explaining what the word “continually” means to a 5 year old and 3 year old.  So I talked a bit with them about breathing.  We breathe continually, often forgetting that we’re breathing.  It’s not something we’re always aware is happening, but we are always breathing in (deep breath), and breathing out (deep breath out).  I sat back and smiled at how clever I was, watching my girls take deep breaths, and making the connection.  Until Addie finally spoke up:

“Daaaad, we don’t always breathe.  You can NOT breathe when you go underwater.  That would not work.”

I was surprised at her response, and nodded. “Well, you’re right Addie, that would definitely not be good.  But we do breathe most of the time, right?  So you can see how God wants us to be praying all the time, so it becomes part of who we are?”

She was still thinking. “Well, I guess if you had a snorkel, you could keep breathing.  Then you wouldn’t have to hold your breath.” She closed her eyes and nodded to herself, as if she’d not only proved me wrong, but fixed my statement all in one conversation.

Whoa.

And she’s only 5.  Look out world, my daughter is coming, and she’s listening to every word you say. 🙂