I just read an article about some scientists who willingly filled their house with recording devices to capture every waking moment of their child’s first two years of life. It’s a part of a massive study to understand how children learn to speak. Get this. They recorded 80,000 hours of video and 120,000 hours of audio.
And I thought I took a lot of video of my kids. Wow! The article says that by the time the child was two he had learned over 400 words, and now they’re trying to figure out how the parents’ baby talk affects what the child learns and how fast he learns it.
What would it be like to parent in that house? What if every word you spoke to your child (or that you spoke around your child) was made public? I imagine most of us would be more than a little embarrassed, maybe by what we said or just how we said it.
Paul invited others to follow him as He followed Christ. As parents that’s exactly the boat we’re in whether we like it or not. Our kids are following us for better or for worse. They mimic our words and actions every single day.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (or an MIT Researcher) to understand that no one has more influence on their child than their parents. That’s why as a children’s ministry we are so excited to partner with you in 2011 to help kids fall in love with Jesus and follow Him. I’m not really into New Year’s Resolutions, but I’m praying that for both our parents and children’s ministry leaders that we would be setting an example worth following as we go into a new year together.
Jason Byerly
Children’s Pastor
You can check out the Forbes article at http://www.forbes.com/2010/12/21/human-speechome-mit-media-lab-children-language-acquisition.html
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