Everyone knows if you want your kids to be interested in the same stuff as you, you have to start indoctrinating them when they are young. Of course, we encourage a wide variety of activities and expose them to all sorts of sports, fine arts, and other interests, but you really have to set them straight in a few things.
Nathan has done his job well in a few certain areas. Elias knows more about the Dodgers than the average kid, and definitely knows more about baseball than other sports. He struts around saying Bob Dylan lyrics.
I realized Nathan has really done his job, though, when in the past week I’ve witnessed the Biblical studies rubbing off. For example, here is Elias reading the latest issue of JBL (Journal of Biblical Literature) at the dinner table:
We got this in the mail, and he took it from his Daddy’s hands, ripped it out of the packaging, and proceeded to read it all through my dinner preparation, and couldn’t be bothered to stop when I set the dinner in front of him.
Then there’s this….
The other day when I got home from dropping Elias off at AWANA, I found Nathan teaching Simon the ancient Greek alphabet. This is actually the poorer of the two videos I got, but the better one got lost (a tear is rolling down my cheek).
BE (before Elias) Nathan used to teach a little Greek or Hebrew down in the nursery on ESL nights….. it was a joy to watch. Seeing Simon learn is even better. Wonderfully cool!!!!!