My Boy Jackson: "I not broke down. God Made Me."

Jackson's famous pout...

Mad props to the Orange folks who are working on the First Look Curriculum!  It's making a difference in the lives of little ones like my son Jackson!

The First Look curriculum seeks to impart 3 basic truths to the wee tots entrusted to us:

God Made Me

God Loves Me

Jesus Wants To Be My Friend Forever

And my 4 year old son just demonstrated that it's catching on!

Jackson's sayings are famous around my house.  He has enthusiastically declared after watching a vintage Veggie Tales DVD that "God is bigger than the foogie man."  Multiple attempts to correct him were met with adamant denials of the existence of any such "boogie man."  The "foogie" man is his real name and slime comes out of his ears.  He was wearing his "fweatshirt" at the time of these denials.

He's also been known to ask if we are going to take a "hair cut" to get home sooner (presumably "short cut") and asked the nice lady waitress at Friendly's to put "hot vudge" on his ice cream.

This past weekend, he was playing with key chains and declared an all-consuming love of "cheese canes" which admittedly don't sound like such a bad idea to me.

And my personal favorite is his perennial answer to the question "What do you think Jackson?" which is, of course, "Yes, I do think!"   Except on bad days, when it is a sullen "No, I don't think!"

His latest addition to the Jackson Lexicon was actually a God moment from the lips of a four year old poet.  This past week, I was being my usual silly self and mangling a show-stopping song from his older sister Reagan's kindergarten "train play" in which she plays a haughty purple tiger who rebuffed cries of "please stop and help us" with a curt, "help you, I should say not!"

The song I was mangling actually goes as follows:

Please stop and help us

Please stop and help us

Please stop and help us

Our engine's broken down

My version, of course, replaced "Our engine's broken down" with "Our Jackson's broken down."

Admittedly not the most ego-boosting statement to make to your son, but a fanciful line of whimsy nonetheless.  Jackson, however, was not amused.

His angry face and pouty lips took shape as he declared, "I not broke down!  God made me!"

Now grammatical errors aside, it was a statement that made me smile.

My 4 year old knows that God made him, and as a result, that he's not a mistake, broken down, or worthless.   At his incredibly young age, thanks to the Deuteronomy 6 partnership between his parents and his church leaders, young Jackson has embraced a teaching that is so absolutely life-altering that many folks wrestle all of their lives to fathom it, much less live it.  Jackson the theologian was applying the key biblical truth from Psalm 139 to himself and  declaring (in typical Jackson-ese):

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."   Psalm 139:13-14 

That is the kind of true life change that folks working with the Orange curriculum can expect.

Teaching with an end in mind works.  Working with parents to reach this next generation to plug them into the purposes of God is an amazing blessing and privilege.  When kids like Jackson can take hold of the big boulders of faith, it's much easier for him to build his household of faith on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ.

And it's certainly more than enough to fight off the evils of the foogie man!