Watch Your Steps

When I read Our Children are Sponges it reminded me of a story from Call of Duty: The Sterling Nobility of Robert E. Lee by J. Steve Wilkins. This story touched me when I read it last year. I hope you enjoy it too!

A favorite maxim ofthe Puritans was, "The father is the mirror by which the child dresses himself." In spite of all that is often said to the contrary we know this to be so. The greatest influence we will ever have is that which we have on the children that God has given us.

This reality was impressed upon thirty-three year old Robert Lee one winter's day eight years after the birth of his son Custis . . . One afternoon Lee took Custis for a walk in the snow, holding him by the hand. When they had walked for a short way, Custis dropped his father's hand and fell behind. In a few minutes Lee looked back over his shoulder and saw Custis imitating his every movement. Walking as his father walked, head and shoulders erect, with all the grace and dignity the eight-year-old could muster, he was struggling to walk in the very footprints his father had left behind in the snow.

Lee said later, "When I saw this, I said to myself 'It behooves me to walk very straight, when this fellow is already following in my tracks.'"

You don't have to have your own children to know the reality of this story! When I visited my nephews in Queensland, the two year old began to copy how I carry my pillow to any chair I go to sit on (it helps my sore back). He would come to the table with a cusion and say "I need my pillow". This was very funny, but also a scary reminder of what mimics children are!

I want to keep this fact in mind as I babysit my neice and other children. I see Esther several times a week, and I'll probably be a part of her life for many years. I want to leave a good legacy, in the small things and the large ones. The fact that children are mimics is also important in relation to choosing a husband. "What sort of father and grandfather will this man be?" is an important question to consider.

Here is another picture of Esther, unwrapping her presents on her birthday. Grandma gave her a wheelbarrow and lots of little tools. I am so glad that Esther's Grandma is a great example to her (and to me!) of love for God and others.