I've heard before that babies and toddlers are like sponges, meaning that they absorb a lot of what they witness. They are constantly learning new things and growing accordingly. Lyla has not started displaying things that she learns to the point of surprising me yet. But I have been seeing how much she pays attention to things and soaks everything in. She is constantly investigating different things. I've heard that around the time that kids start speaking they learn fifty new words a month.
Isn't that how we were as new believers. We were just soaking it all in. We eagerly read the Bible, attended Bible studies, prayed, and made commitments. Many new believers regularly share their new faith with excitement. The older we get the less we learn and with less excitement. As believers, the excitement often dies off and we stop learning. When we stop learning, we stop growing.
I have the potential to put security in what I know and the experiences I have had. I could stop listening to people and be resistant to new ideas. But even when I'm eighty, I hope to still be looking for what I can learn as I did when I was a child. Just because I'm older doesn't mean that I can't learn from younger generations (like my baby). If I'm highly educated, I can still learn things from people who aren't. Pride is the biggest enemy of growth. My desire is to approach God and life with child like faith.
