Noah goes to Primary

Since it's the start of a new year and Noah is three years old, he has graduated from nursery to Primary with the big kids. I feel so happy every Sunday that I am serving in Primary so I get to see firsthand how Noah is making this transition. On his first Sunday as a little Sunbeam in the front row, he seemed a little overwhelmed/unimpressed. During a sharing time lecture, I heard him mutter under his breath, while shaking his head: "I just don't know about this."

But he is catching on. I gave the 2nd week sharing time on "feasting upon the words of Christ" and in a phone conversation 3 days later, he gave an accurate recap of the lesson (without any prompting from me or Grandma): "Grandma, a feast means to have big foods to eat. We should feast on the scriptures. But that doesn't mean to eat them! We should read them!"

And last Sunday, he gave his first talk from the Primary pulpit! This was the talk we cowrote: "I love to read. I especially love to read dinosaur books. But at night before I go to bed, I love to read the scriptures. The scriptures are special books that teach us about Jesus, like the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I like to listen to the stories and look at the pictures. My favorite

story is about Samuel. He was a prophet and climbed on a wall and told people to repent. I am happy God gave us the scriptures." We practiced during the week and gave him enough ice cream and cupcake bribes to get him through the talk. Kyle helped him and I got to watch it all. He smiled through it all, and he even held up his dinosaur book and his scriptures at the appropriate time. I was proud of the little guy, for one thing that he would get up in front of 30 people and speak into the microphone. And for another thing, because it is amazing to see your child's faith take root and start to grow.

Having a child who is old enough to understand concepts about God and Jesus and church has made me think seriously about my own faith. And to make sure I really believe everything I am teaching them. (Which I do, by the way.) Since children are like little sponges, it's important that to give them good stuff to soak up! It's just a matter of time before the rest of the world starts throwing other ideas and philosophies at him. I learned today that it starts pretty early. We were playing with play-dough and he wanted to mix the black with the blue, but the playdough was new, and you know how there is just something so special about pretty new playdough! I said: "Don't you think it would be nice to keep them separate so you can have two different colors to play with?" He said: "Yeah, but I want to mix them. It's what everybody does!" Gotta love that good old peer pressure. Well at least these boys gave a mom and dad to keep them straight with the stuff that matters. And who will let him mix the playdough when necessary :)