I chuckle every time

I have seen that family position influences a child’s language development in amazing ways. Firstborn have only adult language to learn from and so they tend to have advanced vocabularies. It is one of the reasons they may seem to have accelerated learning. In my experience, this is also true of the youngest child, especially if the oldest sibling is years ahead of them in age and learning.

I see the latter as I watch my 3-year-old grandson grow and learn. His vocabulary is strongly influenced by his older siblings, especially his 11-year-old sister and 9-year-old brother. He tends to have an innate sense of humor as part of his personality and can actually make people laugh with his own viewpoint. But lately, I laugh inside and chuckle each time I hear his correct usage of his favorite word. I find it amazing and funny that he truly understands and correctly uses the word “hilarious.” There are others too, but hearing the still-childlike pronunciation when he tells me about a cartoon he watched brings a huge smile to my face.

My delight in my grandchildren’s learning and maturing has eased some difficult times lately. It also reminds me that I have more to learn as a child of God. My schedule has been overwhelmed with my work and commute. I sense the stirring of desire to find a way to make a formal Bible study part of my life again. I grow every week as my prayer team meets before service with the excellent biblical focus provided to our service team by our church leadership. But it has been a long time since I really dove into a book of the Bible to mine its treasures. God is impressing a scripture on my heart about His provision for me:

Colossians 2:3 In Him all the treasures of [divine] wisdom [comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God] and [all the riches of spiritual] knowledge [and] enlightenment are stored up [and] lie hidden. AMP (www.BibleGateway.com)

I’m really asking you all to help me with ideas about how you have delved into the Word of God when time was short. How do you study the Bible when you are short on time?