Understanding Your 3 Yr. Old

(This is the fourth of an 8 part series on Understanding Your Youngster. Check back each week for helpful, age specific information on how to help your child's spiritual development and creating a godly foundation.)

"Children never have been very good at listening to their elders, but they never fail to imitate them." James Baldwin

I'm three. Welcome to my world. I'm known for having a short attention span because I don't want to miss anything. I love to wiggle and squirm. I'm full of wonder and love to explore. You often here me say, "me" or "mine" because, of course, the world belongs to me. Join me in my journey and see how I do life.

• Listen to my questions, give honest answers and assure me of God's love. 
• As I listen and watch the adults around me, my moral and spiritual ideas and ideas of God are being formed. 
• Model God's acceptance by your words and actions. My experiences with you are the first stepping stones to understanding God's grace. Tell me often: I am loved; Jesus loves me; God made me. 
• Model God's love by being consistent. It helps me to see the same faces and hear the same voices weekly at church. 
• I am beginning to understand right from wrong. 
• I can sense the emotions adults display through their nonverbal body language and tone of voice. 
• I can repeat simple Bible verses and learn truths such as: God gives us friends; God made everything, including me. 
• Read me simple Bible stories from a children's Bible. I experience God's love by the way you treat and talk to me. 
• I'm learning to help and serve others. I can help in simple ways like picking things up, putting things in the garbage or putting things in their place. 
• Music and movement help me remember what I learn about God/Jesus/the Bible. I like simple Bible songs with motions. 
• Teach me to make simple decisions by giving me choices between two things (milk or juice). This helps build my self-esteem.

"Parenting is a two-way street - as you take them by the hand, they will take you by the heart." Judy Ford

(Information pulled from Willow Creek's "Thought You'd Like to Know" packs.)