The Spirit of God Sung by my 3 Year Old

Towards the end of my pregnancy with Lincoln, Aaron and I lived in Phoenix, AZ for the summer so that Aaron could install security systems with his two brothers-in-law. We lived in the same apartment complex and only a couple doors from two of Aaron's sisters. It was great for me to be that close to them, to get to know them better, and to learn from them. I spent a lot of time watching them with their kids and learning how to be a good mother.

One of the things we really liked that Aaron's sister Stacey did, was that she would sing primary songs with her kids before bedtime. I know a lot of people do this, but it had never occurred to me to do it, until I saw Stacey doing it. I think singing the primary songs is such a great way to teach small children the gospel. Even when they don't understand what the words mean, they can still feel the spirit, learn the songs, and then some day when they can understand what the words mean they'll already know the words to the songs and will already know that what they say are true because of the feelings they've already felt from singing them.

So thanks to Stacey, ever since Lincoln was born we've been singing primary songs to our kids at night. A little while ago, after Lincoln had started talking, he started to sing along at night when we would sing to him. I was so surprised at how many of the songs he knew ALL the words to already. And I see the same thing starting to happen with Ivan. I am positive that Ivan knows more of the words to the songs than he is able to sing. And since they know so many, I've been trying to branch out, and teach them more and more.

Sometimes when I can't remember any more primary songs, I sing hymns. But, hymns are a lot longer than primary songs, obviously, and I didn't expect or really even think that Linc would be able to learn and remember all those words. But he surprised me again. One day while he was talking to my mom on the phone (one of his favorite things to do) he asked if he could sing her a song (which he always does, but it's usually Child of God), and to my surprise, he belted out the entire first verse of The Spirit of God. Without help. He gets some of the words mixed up, but he does a fantastic job of it for a three year old.

So my next song experiment is going to be The Preamble to the Constitution. (School House Rock anyone?) Just to see if he can learn it even though he has no idea what most of the words in that song are.