The gospel according to an almost-two-year-old

Rebecca is becoming more and more capable of combining words. It is especially fun for me to see her repeating ideas that we have tried to instill in her, particularly biblical concepts. Her first exposure to Jesus dying on the cross was in her rhyming toddler Bible, and she picked up on the symbol of the cross pretty quickly and would identify it whenever she saw it (in books, on church buildings, even the letter "t", and the underside of her Mega Blocks).

The past few months we have added a short explanation about the cross whenever she sees one and mentions it, and now she has her own almost-two-years-old version of the gospel that she spouts off whenever she sees a cross. It goes like this: "Cross-Jesus-died-sad-then-rose again-happy!" I know she doesn't fully understand what death is or why Jesus had to die, but it is still encouraging to me to know that she is listening to what we are saying and that God is already at work in her heart.

She also has a very good understanding of obedience and disobedience, and whenever she obeys, she says, "Yea, Rebecca! Obey! Jesus happy! Mommy happy! Daddy happy!" and sometimes extends the happiness to her stuffed animals and/or various aunts, uncles, grandparents, and even babysitters, even if they are not present at the time. And whenever she disobeys, she recognizes that all these same people are sad. Then I pray with her and ask Jesus to help her obey, and afterwards, she says, "Better now." I think this is my favorite part of parenting so far!