My daughter loves condiments. She squeezes massive amounts of ketchup on her fries or grits—yes, grits! She pours mountains of syrup on her pancakes. Yet, none of those indulgences compare to her love of butter. She puts butter on potatoes and bread. When I give her what I believe is a reasonable amount, she often asks for more. She makes deals with her dad for extra butter. She sneaks butter behind my back. The girl loves butter!
One day our family gathered for an afternoon meal and once again, my daughter pulled out her knife and loaded her bread with butter. “Stop! That’s enough,” I said. She smiled and licked more butter from her spoon. I continued, “Too much butter stops your heart! You’ll die an early death, and leave mommy and daddy here all sad.” No drama there! The words were meant to shock her and cause her to consider the consequences of her choice, since I am raising a curious and thoughtful little one.
In addition to being smart and quite charming, my daughter is also strong-willed and quick on her feet. She has a response for almost everything, so before I could get all of the words, “Too much butter stops your heart! You’ll die an early death…” out of my mouth, she was already preparing her comeback. She popped a morsel of her butter-filled bread in her mouth and said, “Well, why don’t we all eat more butter so we can die and go to heaven together?” For a moment, I was speechless.
The Psalmist writes, “From the lips of children and infants you [God] have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger (Ps. 8:2 NIV).” I have prayed this passage over my daughter for years. It has been my prayer that her life and words will glorify or bring praise to God. It has been my prayer that God would use her words and prayers to crush the plans of Satan and his demons, and on that day she used her words to crush my fears and anxieties. It is good to have wisdom, and it is also true that fear is not of the Lord. Fear must be cut off at the root, and her words calmed my fears.
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SOURCE: Christianity Today
Natasha Sistrunk Robinson
