“THIS AND THAT, COPY CAT
WHATEVER I DO YOU DO IT TO
IT’S A LITTLE GAME WHERE
WE DO THE SAME…
OK – HERE WE GO!”
Did
you ever play “Copy-Cat” ? I did – a
lot! I am the oldest of 4 children and
my father was a traveling salesman. We went on road trips often and there was
no TV, no DVD player, no cell phone, no hand-held electronic ANYTHING in the
car.( I am that old!) We played games. “I Spy” for miles, “Copy Cat” until our Mama begged
us for the “Quiet Game”.
When
I sing the “Copy Cat” song at a Miss PattyCake concert (lyrics above), I always
to make reference to the verse that is its origin:
Ephesians 5:1, “Therefore be
imitators of God, as beloved
children;”
‘Imitator’
is a big word for a little person, and often the best way to explain a verb, a “doing”
word, is to show them. “Here – imitate this… do what I do…be a copy-cat” ! Jesus
did this all the time! He told stories, he used illustrations, and maybe, with
the children, he played gamesJ I
like to think He did. So – let’s play a
game! You (children) copy me, I will copy Jesus, then we will both WALK IN
LOVE, which is the very next verse:
Eph.
5:2, “Walk in love, just as Christ loved YOU, and gave Himself up for you, an
offering and sacrifice to God…”
Don’t
we love our children? Wouldn’t we give ourselves for them? OF COURSE WE
WOULD. And that is how God feels about
us! I like these verses better from the
Message translation:
“Watch what God does, then
you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is LOVE YOU. Keep company with Him and learn a life of
love. Observe how Christ loved us. His
love was not cautious but extravagant! He didn’t love in order to get something
from us but to give everything of himself to us. LOVE LIKE THAT!”
See? It’s all about “Copy-Cat”. How do we copy God? We look at the life of Jesus! He said, “If you have seen me, you have seen
the Father.” (John 14:7) READ what Jesus did – mostly He loved people. He went
about doing good, helping others. I like
to look at the word “therefore” to find what it is “there for”. It usually refers to whatever came right
before it. Eph 4:32 comes before the
“therefore” of 5:1 , so what does it say?
“Be
kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, jut as God in Christ
also has forgiven you.”
Let’s
copy THAT! If we, as parents, will ask the Father to create this lifestyle of
love, kindness, forgiveness in US – then our children will SEE it, and
naturally copy us as we instruct them. And together, we will COPY JESUS!
I
realize – in the “hullabaloo” of life with babies, toddler, preschoolers, all
this is easier said than done! In you going, you doing, diapers and bottles,
sippy cups and spills, messy play area, crayons, goldfish, endless laundry and
dishes, take a moment – breathe – look up and THANK GOD for all of it and
REMEMBER THIS:
“It
is GOD who works in us both to WILL and to DO His good pleasure.” Phil 2:13
THAT,
my friend, is the key – that takes the pressure off us to “DO” it ourselves –
to get it all RIGHT! This is God’s work IN us and THROUGH us. Can we love our
children well? HE can love them well
THROUGH USJ Can we always be kind? Can we always forgive? God, the Holy Spirit is alive in us, and, as
we give Him permission, He lives that beautiful LOVE LIFE through us and it
spills onto our little ones. COPY THAT!
(“COPY-CAT”
song can be found on the CD, “Colors, Numbers, ABCs” and also on the DVD,
“Sing-A-Long Fun Pack”, and “Preschool Fun Songs” Go to the STORE at
www.misspattycake.com)
