1, 2, 3, 4..... GO!

It's my new favorite thing that Ladan says. Whenever he races his cars or planes, he says to each one, "One, two, free, four, GO!"

Pretty soon he's going to be saying it to Gabe. Gabe is officially crawling as of June 1, and since then he's been able to make more and more progress across the room. He still flops down after a few moves, but he can definitely get where he wants to go. And apparently, he's interested in getting into all kinds of things already. So, for those of you who we're planning to visit here in the next couple of weeks... get ready!

A while back, I mentioned that Ladan has been learning some memory verses. Well, we hadn't really gone over them for a couple of weeks (not sure why), so about a week ago, I just started by saying the first word or two of each one, and he remembered them ALL perfectly! I knew that there was one that I was forgetting, and I finally remembered which one I was leaving out. It was "All have sinned. Romans 3:23a" So, tonight I said, "All," and Ladan finished with "Have sinned!" After almost four weeks of not reviewing this one, all I had to say was "all" and he knew exactly what I was talking about and finished it up right away.

His verse for the past month is, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Ephesians 6:1" He's got this one down really well... the words anyway. Chet was smart to ask Ladan tonight if he knows that Mommy and Daddy are his parents. Kind of funny, but you can't assume anything. I thought it was a great question. Ladan affirmed that he does know that we are his parents. Obviously, we'll be working on the practical application of this verse for the rest of his life with us. :)

I really enjoy it when he says, "God created the heavens and the earft (earth)," and "Do evewyfing wiffout argooing or compwaining."

When we pray at night, Ladan prays for different things, but we always include a prayer something like: "Thank you, God, most of all for sending Jesus to die on the cross and rise again to save us from our sins if we believe and trust in Him. Please help us trust in you, God." Tonight Ladan said all of that all by himself (except he said "save us TO our sins" and sometimes he says, "save us FOR our sins").

And, before I leave his room at night, I always ask Ladan what he can do if he gets scared in the night. He responds, "I can say, 'Please help me, God. I'm scared." He knows that God is everywhere, and since God created the heavens and the earth (earft), He is in charge of everything. When we're scared, we can call on God, and He will be with us. And since he's in control of everything, we don't need to fear anything.

I told Chet that these examples provide motivation for all children to start scripture memory early on (as in, as soon as they can talk)--it's not nearly as difficult for them as it is for me. It's very fun to hear your almost-three-year-old be able to articulate so many of these things. I pray that both of my boys will be able to store up the Word in their hearts so that they have comfort and direction whenever they need it. I pray that they will know the promises of the Lord so well that they know they can call on the Him and find peace and help in their times of need. May He graciously save them and lead them down the path of joy everlasting!!!!