Our Reader

I think Dan and I are officially old.  We have a son who can pretty much read anything that he puts his mind to or happens to notice.  Suddenly, he is reading Facebook statuses that he sees up on the computer, newspaper headlines, etc.  Who IS this boy??!

A few days ago, Matthew looked up his Sunday School memory verse in his Bible (Psalm 100:1) and when he realized he could read all of the relatively short Psalm, he was pretty ecstatic.  He told us that evening, "Now I know what I can do with my Bible: STUDY IT!" 

Now if THAT isn't music to his parents ears!

Here he is trying to get through Psalm 101.  (It's a little more challenging than Psalm 100.)

Last night at bedtime, for the first time, Matthew read his OWN bedtime story.

Here is a little video of him reading it:

The rest of this post is written by Dan...
Tonight, after his first time reading his own bed-time Bible story to Amy, Matthew prayed a prayer that really touched my heart.  He prayed,

"Dear Jesus, thank you that I can read my Bible and that I can study my Bible.  And thank you that I can just pray to you and you hear me.  That I can just talk to you just like I'm talking to my Daddy.  Except you don't talk back to me.  Well, you do talk to us in the Bible.  Like, you speak to us in the Bible when we read the Bible."

We are by no means perfect parents and have lots of weaknesses when it comes to parenting.  There are some attitude traits in Matthew that we continually pray will be improving.  But I couldn't be more delighted than to hear that my son wants to read the Word and understands that it is more than just a collection of stories to teach us what's right, or an instruction manual for life, but that it is the Word of God revealed to us so that we may know and love Him.

"Speak, O Lord, as we come to You
To receive the food of Your Holy Word.
Take Your truth, plant it deep in us;
Shape and fashion us in Your likeness,
That the light of Christ might be seen today
In our acts of love and our deeds of faith.
Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us
All Your purposes for Your glory."
- Keith Getty