Learning by Osmosis?

Reid is a sweet little boy, who is very bright. I find myself looking at him, thinking about his potential, wondering what he'll be like when he's older, wondering what he'll talk about, what his favorite subject will be in school, all the wonderful things he will know. Then I think about what I hope he'll learn during my time with him to prepare him for the long-term. I hope he'll grow up to be a polite boy, so I want to teach him to share, and to say 'please' and 'thank you.' I hope he'll love to read, so I need to engage him in books early, and teach him the letters of the alphabet. I hope he'll be good at math and science, so he needs to learn to count, and to be observant and inquisitive.

Of course, children learn by absorbing from their environment. You can't expect a child as small as Reid to learn something he's only told once or twice, or even something he hears every day. You absorb something you're marinated in, something that surrounds you constantly, something that covers you so completely at all times to the point that you have no choice but to soak it up. Well, I'M his environment. It's just him and me, all day, five days a week. Any stimulus that he gets, he gets from me. This means that it's up to me not only to tell him things once in a while, or even to make sure to do a little reading or counting or something every day, but to saturate him with the things I hope he will learn. I have to exhibit the behavior I want him to emulate. I have to say 'please' and 'thank you' consistently, every time I hand something to him, or vice versa. When we're on a walk, even though he's in a stroller and I know when to cross the street, I have to stop at every crossing and talk him through the routine of looking for cars. Suddenly, everything we see or play with must be described by shape, size and color, every animal must be paired with its respective sound, the alphabet song is sung during every break in activity, and WE COUNT EVERYTHING!!!
Of course, the same is true for what we want our children to learn about God. To borrow a phrase from an anti-smoking PSA: "If you don't talk to your kids about God, who will?" I am learning to appreciate Deuteronomy 6 in a whole new way: "Impress [these commandments] upon your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you stand up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them to your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses, and on your gates." He really meant talk about them ALL THE TIME! Don't be shy, and don't be silent! Talk about God's attributes, His holiness, His perfection, His justice, His mercy, His love, His awesome power, His wisdom, His commandments, everything, during every part of the day, during every activity. Don't let it be limited to Sunday School, or a Bible story or two before bed, or when the subject comes up. God didn't command the Israelites to have a nightly family devotion time, He said to make every moment an opportunity to teach His truth, no matter what you're doing. Talk about them when you're eating dinner, when you're walking to school, when you're doing dishes, when you're playing outside, when you're doing homework, when you're doing chores, when you're providing discipline, all the time. And don't just talk about them, Deuteronomy also says to display them in prominent places. Write them everywhere. Make them conspicuous. Make it so the kids can't get away from them. These truths have to be impossible to miss. They have to hear them all the time, see them everywhere, and most importantly, they have to see us living them. Children learn from their environment, and as their primary caregiver, we ARE their environment. No pressure or anything.

This amount of responsibility overwhelms me. I can talk big all I want, but I haven't been consistent. I haven't been talking about God every moment, I haven't even been thinking about talking about Him that much. It's just too much to keep track of all of it all the time. I can't do it myself. I have to learn to marinate myself in His word so that I can become more of a channel for Reid and for my own future children. This is the kind of task I can only take on if I am truly walking humbly with my God.