"Where did you get those eyes?"

I have to admit, we parents can be an obnoxious lot sometimes. We all--each one of us--think our kid is the smartest/cutest/funniest/most interesting child who ever lived. We all consistently bore people with the latest story of something amazing our little bundle of joy just said or did.

Well, to all of that I say without apology: Guilty as charged. And worse, I'm a dad with a pulpit and a blog. I'm your worst nightmare.

My two kids are proving to be very different. Whereas Kayleigh in her preschool years was precociously intelligent, Will is precociously witty. Yesterday morning, Carrie was watching "Diego" with him on TV. (For those of you who are blessedly unfamiliar with children's television--oh how I envy you that--there is a certain sub-genre of kids' shows like "Diego," "Dora the Explorer," and "Blue's Clues" in which the characters talk to the kids watching the program). At one point Diego spoke to the camera, introducing his friend Baby Jaguar. At that point, Will turned to his mom and asked, "Who's he talking to?" "I think he's talking to us," Carrie replied. To which Will responded very matter-of-fact: "Uh...he's on TV." So there.

As a father, the thing I am most concerned about is passing along my faith to my kids. Carrie and I both pray that our children will know Jesus and His love for them, and will live out His plan for their lives. Kayleigh surprised us with how interested she was in spiritual matters at a very young age. At three (three!) she wanted to know about heaven, and how one gets there after this life. She insisted on praying a prayer for salvation right then. We, of course, assumed she wasn't really ready to make a public profession of faith, but she hounded us for two years, begging to be baptized. Finally, when she was five, she broke away from her mom during the invitation at the end of a worship service and came to me, ready to profess her faith. Since she could answer questions about Scripture and understood more about salvation than many Christian adults I knew, I felt like I had to baptize her...she clearly knew what she was doing and why.

Will, on the other hand, is more of a conventional four-year-old, spiritually speaking. We try our best to give him the same spiritual upbringing that we are giving his sister. And we don't worry about the fact that he is much more interested in wrestling with dad or shooting imaginary bad guys than he is in Bible stories (he does, however, like the Bible stories in which fighting occurs, savage little guy that he is). But occasionally, we see signs that all of this really is sinking in. Last night, I took Will to Wendy's for supper, just the two of us. As we were getting up after our meal, a lady at a nearby table asked him, "Where did you get those eyes?" (he has very striking blue eyes, whereas mine are sort of a dull brown) "Did you get those from your mommy?" Will looked up at her and said, "No...God made me."

Good answer, kid.