My son joined me as I was reading my daily dose of devotionals. He was learning how to read. We were struggling with those repertoires of vowels.
When I hold the book in my hand, he’d simply take a seat beside me, pushing me slowly. So, for the next few moments, we are going to spend some time together. We change our place of reading, from time to time.
Many of the words are difficult for a five-year-old to read. The vowels did have many sounds. They were important because the vowels were the letters that really make the sound out of a word. But we go on. We even prayed for the vowels to go easy on us.
In reality, we are following the instructions of their teacher in the schools too. They pressed hard on reading practice at home. Since English is not our native language, we are speaking indigenous tongue; we have to learn several languages.
I am happy because he came out of his sheer will of learning. Although it consume much of our time, it was worth trying, spelling the long words and trying to make the most suitable pronunciation out of them. Sometimes it might sound silly. But is it silly? I thought not!
In the meantime, he would say English reading is really hard. However, I assured him that in few times he would be as smooth as the news readers. Most things are difficult when we learn, many times, I assured him.
It requires a lot of patience followed by encouraging words from me. Sometimes, we wonder together where these words have come from. The laughter and the thoughts that followed our reading times are worth more than our struggles.
The Good Part of Our Reading:
Now let me tell you the best part of our experience. But let me tell you that we are still struggling.
When we’re done with our reading, we’d revisited the meaning and lessons to be learn from our devotional readings.
He insisted on telling him the Bible verse for the day:
“Papa, now tell me our Bible verse for today with the meaning,” he said. To which I quickly, at the same time happily, read out the given verse again and again.
We would revisit the stories around which the verse was taken. He was more than willing to listen. One more thing: explaining those difficult words and their meanings are valuable.
The best part is that it’s a good time teaching Christian values straight from the Bible. When we understand the words; why it was recorded or written, to whom, for what purpose, and its implications, it is good for the soul.
Explaining the Given Verses:
Our reading task can be arduous but it few minutes of uphill climb we could understand them all. Some of the words in the Bible are deep-rooted. But when we asked the owner of the word, we can have a sufficient understanding of the words.
Here, in this short space, I cannot share you those multiple verses we read every day. But I wanted to share you one:
One evening, we are reading about a topic on rest; the rest we are invited to have. (Matthew 11:28) For a young child in his tender age, who’s hardly weary and burdened, it takes time to let him understand in its truest sense.
We started by saying that our world is full of weariness, pain, hunger, debt, poverty, disease, illness, and death. Now he stopped me, there are few of them he understood. For example, he knows what hunger is – when he is very hungry and I did not give him something to eat. That’s really difficult, he said. It is because it could take times preparing the best meal for our children.
He also understood illness and few more. We always pray for daddy to get well. When we pray for someone and our self, God really did work in the best way for us. The reality is, God’s ways are His ways, we cannot understand in its subtlety.
Jesus Christ invited us to have this rest. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” And we need this rest!
We are entitled to have this rest, in His blood, even during this life. While our pains and worries would be wiped away in its entirety when we attended the new heaven and new earth. (Rev. 21:1-5)
Everyone Needs Rest:
We spend some more time listening, to the type of worries and pain, from a five-year-old. Sometimes we burst out laughing listening to the list; but all the listings are given due important. Maybe, I will write some other day.
In our walk of life, we wanted many things. All the things we wanted are not a necessity for living. But when our wants are not fulfilled it can caused weariness in our living. Our wants can be misunderstood as our needs too.
So, in several certain situations we need understandings from God, which would eventually give us rest!
Even in our reading exercise our eyes can get strained. Straining in our eyes can be simple for some, but it caused uneasiness and sometimes pain. We need to take a short break from our reading period.
In the end, our reading together, with my son, is one of those moments that would be sweetly cherished. It is a privilege to enjoy special time with our love ones. This experience taught us certain lessons, as a parent, and as part of our Christian Living.
