Baby Talk

For years, I have enjoyed listening to people talk to babies and toddlers. "Car" becomes "car car." "Grandma" is sometimes "yah yah." Words like "ride" are pronounced with a letter that's easier for a baby to say, like "wide." Putting it all together would go something like this: "Baby wanna go for a wide with yah yah in her car car?"

In answer, the child smiles or gives a blank look, either of which is a yes.

Some parents would prefer people don't talk to their toddler in that fashion, hoping the child will develop normal speech patterns before their 'baby talk' peers. Set higher expectations, and your kid will do their best to live up to them, right?

Not me. I want to enter my granddaughter's world. I want to talk the way she wants to. I want to get down on the floor and crawl around with her, instead of waiting until she can stand. If she wants to call me "Grrr' for now instead of "Grampa Dennis," I'll answer, "Here I am."

I guess I'm the same with people new to the faith, 'baby Christians." I'll leave words like "sanctification" and "eschatological" in my office. I'll crawl with them until their ready to walk.

Otherwise, they might crawl away.

"To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I many share in its blessings." I Corinthians 9:22-23