ABC's and 123's: Slow Learning

ABC’s and 123’s

Slow Learning

CJ’s grin nearly touched his ears. His face glowed. Every so often he actually giggled out loud. 

He was fairly bursting with the thrill of discovery and accomplishment. He was working on his very first color-by-number picture.

Three months ago, you could have pointed to a number “3” and asked CJ what it was, and his answer would have been something like this:

“Six? Two? ‘Firteen (thirteen)? Twenty-six?”

Eventually he might have happened upon the right guess…but he really had no clue…

..until this fall, when we started spending an hour or so, three or four days a week, sitting down and working on his letters and sounds and numbers.

Mostly what we do is practice; I spend very little time actually teaching him new things. I write out the letters and numbers he’s learned so far, and he traces over them with a marker. Progress is slow. Each week we add a new number and a new letter. A couple of months into it, he finally gained the confidence to write a little on his own instead of just tracing. But still he mostly just traces. Sometimes we have to backtrack and do some extra practicing, like when CJ started adding extra loops to his 8’s. But bit by bit he’s catching on. Finally he had progressed enough that I realized I could break out the color-by-number pictures.

And it was absolutely thrilling. For child and mommy, for pupil and teacher. He asked me to take a picture of it and send the picture to “Jack and Lilly and G and B and Mema and Papa and Aunt Boo…” Finally he asked me to just send it to “everyone in the whole universe!”

It seems like life’s most foundational and most important lessons are learned slowly. Lots of practice. Lots of repetition. Daily trying again.

Parenting is like that. Lots and lots of repetition.

“Flush and close the lid.”

“If you take it from him you won’t get a turn.”

“Go to your room until you can come out with a happy face.”

“When your’e done with it, don’t put it down. Put it away.”

Over. And over. And over. And over. Progress is slow, incremental. But there are plenty of opportunities to practice.

And it’s like that in my Christian walk, too. Again and again and again, His Spirit whispers, 

“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.”

“Love as I have loved you.”

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything pray.”

“Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”

“Do not be wise in your own opinion.”

Progress is slow. I have to backtrack a lot. I fail. But the next day, the next hour, the next moment, God gives me another chance to practice. Over and over and over. Then from time to time He decides it’s time to move on to something a little harder, or to let me experience the joy of discovery. Through His Spirit He teaches my spirit some new, thrilling truth about the Christian walk, or an old truth I never really completely “got.” And it’s like filling in a color-by-number picture for the first time—exhilarating!

And I know for a fact that my Teacher, my Father, is SO much more patient with my slow progress than I am with my own children’s.

“Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.”

Psalm 103:13-14

Isn’t He good?