On fridays I stay at home with my youngest son who is 2 years old.
He’s pretty activity. On this day he migrated from reading books to making me food in the play kitchen to assembling a puzzle. In fact, he worked on that puzzle for a while. At first, I didn’t want to intervene because I could see the wheels turning in his head. But, if I’m honest, I was also learning some things about the mind of a two year old, puzzles, and parenting.
I learned that putting puzzles together is not intuitive. He first was taking pieces out of the box and holding them with the front of each piece facing the ground. Then he was holding them high in the air trying to fit them together. He would have eventually figured it out, but it would have taken him a very long time.
I eventually had to help. Because of his age, I had to take each piece put it on the ground showing him exactly where it fits. I would put the right piece just near where it belonged. With every piece the conversation went something like this:
“Do you think this one goes here?”
“No.”
“Try to put it here.”
“Ok daddy.”
After each piece was put into place he would give a brief squeal and want the next piece.
For some non-sequiter reason, this incident got me thinking about raising children to believe in God.
If we give lessons for figuring out puzzles shouldn’t we give lessons on figuring out faith?
Do you help your children put the puzzle of faith together? Why or why not?
What helped you in your faith journey as a child?
-jpserrano