1 Corinthians 11:1 “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.”
My two year old daughter has been doing a lot of imitation. She’ll imitate our 6 month old baby by babbling, putting toys (or her fist) in her mouth, wanting to sit in my lap, or crawling around. When she does this, I tell her that I don’t like when she acts like Joy (our 6 month old, her sister). That I like when she is like Grace (our two year old daughter, herself). Then she will get back on her feet and returns to her normal self until moments later I find her being like Joy again.
She has also been imitating me a lot. It’s really cute and funny. However, it holds me more accountable to model Christ’s behavior towards her. Some things I find her doing are, being really sweet to her sister like singing for her when she starts to cry, smothering her with kisses, or even telling Joy not to move in a commanding voice (I’m trying to teach Joy not to squirm while changing her diaper).
The other night, my husband and I were talking in our bedroom while Joy and Grace were playing around us in the floor. I don’t remember exactly what happened but what I do recall is that Grace got really upset and yelled at her dad, “No preguntes tanto!” (“Stop asking so much!”) then ran out the room. It was the first time she had done something like that. Had it not been for her messy curly hair, widened eyes, and thin arms gesturing towards the air we could have held in our laughter and dealt with it differently. But our laughter allowed us to be lighter about it and call her back into the room. When she came back in the room we were still kind of amused by what had happened that she started to smile too. My husband talked to her for a little and she felt better again.
However, it was convicting for myself because she was actually imitating something I had said to her a few times, “No preguntes tanto.” (Stop asking so much) Most of the times I had said this to her out of impatience. She has begun to ask questions throughout the day repeating the same question over and over (and over) until she gets a full response (uh huh and mm hm are not adequate responses). I suspected she was trying to learn how to speak and pronounce words better but other times I’d wonder whether she was just trying to be “bratty”. After a while (days) of her doing this, I began to feel very annoyed by her constant questions especially during stressful moments so sometimes I’d lash out and tell her not to ask me so many questions. She would usually get upset too because I wasn’t answering her. At the end of the day, while putting her to bed, I’d feel terrible. I’d pray and ask God to forgive me and have mercy on me. I asked Him that for her sake to give her a loving mother.
I had asked on a Christian woman’s discussion board whether this recent behavior of hers was normal and sure enough they confirmed my suspicions. One woman said that she has heard the repetition is comforting to them. Which made sense to me because every time I’d repeat myself she would repeat the answer to herself and seem very pleased inside. Another woman pointed me to an article (https://nogreaterjoy.org/articles/beginning-with-words/) that was extremely helpful to me in understanding and confirming to me in my situation. Indeed, my daughter was learning. Now, by the grace of God, I am a lot more patient and I delight in answering her questions.
Overall, that incidence has held me accountable to model Christ to her. I want to be able to say, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1). I want to take extreme advantage of how much behavior she absorbs simply by watching us. Yesterday, she was playing with her toy “smartphone” and “scrolling” through it with her pen. She kept telling me, “Estoy leyendo la Biblia mamá, es Jesus. (I’m reading the bible mom, it’s Jesus.)” When I finally understood what she said, I laughed and felt so grateful to the Lord for the testimony my daughter can show forth about me through her behavior. She also loves to follow me around the house and does whatever I’m doing whether I cook, wash dishes, nurse the baby. She’ll try to nurse her baby doll too. It’s interesting to see the things she picks up including my mannerism specifically the way I say things.
I want to delight in following Christ and pick up on all his ways too. I pray that not only can I model these outward behaviors to her but inner virtues as well like, “…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” Galatians 5:22-23.
These past few days with her have been fun. I’m looking forward to many more, as the Lord wills.
A few other verses that I like to keep in mind are:
Titus 2:3-5 Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.”
This one encourages me to pursue those good things so that I can teach them to my daughters as they get older.
1 Timothy 2:15 “But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.”
As I continue in faith, love, and self control I trust the Lord will keep me as I raise my children.
Kept by Christ 