Dear Ones,

This is a story that came to me today. Just thought you might enjoy it. Let me know what lessons you learned:

Once upon a time there was a baby born to a very wise couple. This baby was the light of their hearts! They had waited years and years for him! He looked just like his father! He brought great joy to them and they were very excited about the baby's growth and progress. For days they talked about what they would do for the baby, and how the baby would grow up knowing much about His Father God, and walking in HIS ways.

Each day the mother would feed the baby. She'd get the bottle out and then start singing as she rocked and fed the baby. The father loved watching this wonderful scene! Such a joy to have a baby in the house!

Time went by, and the baby was too big to hold in the mother's arms to feed. The wise father and mother decided to use a high chair to seat the baby in. What a wonderful invention! It had much padding that was easy to wipe down and made the seat very comfortable. It had a table in front
that the mother could sit the food on as she fed the child, and it was just the right height to put beside their table so they could look at the baby while they ate, too. Wasn't parenting just wonderful! God had richly blessed them! Baruch HaShem!

A few months down the line, they realized that the baby wanted to start feeding itself! "What shall we do?" asked the mother of the father. "If the baby starts to feed itself it will surely make a mess! I just hate messes! All that cleaning and all. What shall we do?"

The father replied, "Yes, it will be messy. Let's just keep the baby locked up in the high chair and keep feeding him. We'll ignore his pleas for independence. Surely the baby will go back to doing what it use to do. Being cute and sweet and not causing much trouble." The wife agreed to try.

The next day, the mother went to feed the baby, and the baby reached for the spoon! "NO! Mommy feed the baby. You just sit there and let Mommy do it," the Mommy. The baby looked at his mother, and tried again and again to take the spoon away, but the mother was able to avoid the grasp and got most of the food down the baby whether the baby liked it or not!

When the father came home from work, the mother with her hair askew and looking rather ruffled said, "Whew! Am I glad you are home! The baby keeps trying to feed himself. I did just as we had agreed: I kept the baby in the much padded high chair, I held the spoon even though he wanted to take it from me, but he kept throwing things on the floor! It was a mess! Are you sure if we keep this up that the baby will go back to being the way he was? All quiet and docile?"

"Yes! Yes! We just have to convince the baby that we are right and he is wrong. Just keep it up and we'll have that nice little baby back," said the father.

For days this battle insued. Finally the mother met the father at the door with total exasperation and war signals flying! He knew that he was in deep trouble....

"I've had it! You are WRONG! This baby insists that it feeds itself! It WON"T sit there in its nice padded pew (er....) high chair any longer! I am going to give the baby the spoon, and let's see what happens!" said the distraught mother with flashing eyes!

"Okay," said the father knowing full well that he didn't dare challenge his wife when her eyes looked like that. So they put the baby in the nice padded high chair. They put food in the dish, and very carefully stood back to watch.... The baby looked at them with confidence, and took the spoon awkwardly in its hand. It took its other hand and dug into the food on its plate, and threw the spoon on the floor! The parents looked wide eyed at each other and said, "Now what?"

Just then a knock was heard at the door, and in walked the wife's grandmother. Bubbe was a very wise woman who had raised many children. When the couple started telling them of their troubles with the baby, she just laughed. "Oh, my dear ones, don't you know anything? Every baby gets to the point where it wants to feed itself! It will make messes---that is normal! You just clean up after them! (Kind of like a church, huh?) Each meal is a learning experience in table manners! Not everyone knows how to feed themselves, so we give them bottles and no silverware to begin. They just sit there and are sweet and wonderful. But eventually they begin to ask questions and want to feed themselves. You have to teach them how to use a spoon. Then a fork, and finally a knife. All of this takes many years of training. You have to take it one day at a time. Eventually they will not need the padded high chair, right? They will want a real adult chair, and will have to practice their table manners. They make the decisions on when they are ready to learn another piece of table manner, but if you don't let them practice here at home, then where will they learn? If you leave them locked up in a high chair for 3 years, they will surely cause problems! They get too big to close the table on! They are too fat to sit comfortably in the little high chair! They must come to the table in a booster chair or step stool for another 2 or 3 years, but each time you must recognize that they are simply growing up!"

"Thank you, Bubbe! I think I understand!" said the relieved mother. "I will allow the baby to feed itself and try out the foods that I cook. Sometimes the baby will like what I cook, and sometimes it won't. What do I do then?"

Bubbe replied, with a sly smile on her face, "You let the baby learn to cook!"

****What lessons can you see in this story about your growth in Christianity? This is called "remez" in the Jewish way of teaching. Why not watch a child grow and see what the Lord is speaking to Christians every where!

Shalom, Cheryle Holeman

HaY'Did The Learning Center

PO BOX 804

Independence, KS 67301

http://www.haydid.org