If you’ve ever had the joy of living with a three year old, consider yourself fully blessed! I am convinced that there’s nothing that can bring a home to life like the sentiments, emotions, reasoning, and humor from the mouths of these tiny people!

Just this past week, our three year old son was explaining his belief that he looks like me. “Sweetheart, why do you think you look like Mommy?” I questioned. “Because,” he enlightened, “You have brown hair and I have brown hair…You have brown eyebrellas and I have brown eyebrellas.” Thinking I had heard him wrong, I stroked his eyebrow and asked, “Brown eyebrellas?” Without batting an eye, he responded, “Yep, we have brown eyebrellas.”

I have been smiling about that all week! Come to think of it, eyebrella’s a pretty good description of that protective hair over our eyes. Makes sense to this mommy!

This afternoon, before leaving a favorite restaurant of ours, our ten year old daughter was treated to the complimentary Rainbow Sherbet since she “ate her lunch all gone.” She enjoyed every tiny, satisfying bite in the car on the way home and then accidentally forgot the empty container in the car once we arrived there. After she realized it, she told her dad, “Oh, wait. I gotta go get my sherbet out of the car.” Before she could move one step toward the car, her three year old brother walked right up to her, lifted her shirt above her tummy and said, “I’ll give you a *zerbert!” and began to blow on her tummy. She quickly explained to him the way that sherbet is like ice cream and not something we do to each others’ tummies!

She laughed hysterically about that and will be laughing about it for years to come. What’s fun is that in all actuality sherbet and zerberts have the same affect as they both have a way of pasting great big smiles across our faces. A mommy thing again? Okay.

In her book, Dancing Bones, Patsy Clairmont writes about the reality of our earthly existence. She contends that the majority of it will be lived out “in the valley” and defends her notion that accepting this protects us from disillusionment. My short 35 years of experiences lead me to agree with her completely. Part of the hope that Patsy inspires in the book lies in the antidotes she offers for the wounds we often acquire while we’re in the valley. You may not be surprised to find that little honeys who speak of eyebrellas and zerberts are near the top of her list!

The next time you begin your trek through a valley, find a way to enjoy the company of a tiny friend who has that natural capacity to treat your valley wounds with the medicine of a cheerful heart (Proverbs 17:22). There is nothing like it!

*For those of you who need a little help, Urban Dictionary defines zerbert as “a toot-like noise achieved by placing the lips on human skin and blowing.” Only a mommy would offer you a definition. I know. May your heart be fully medicated with cheer today!

 

from my fishbowl,

tessa