You may have seen the chain mail being passed around about the little boy learning how to read. His mother was alarmed when he went to the zoo and kept asking to see "a frickin' elephant." She lamented the coarse language he was learning already in public schools and told him not to use the word "frickin'" anymore. Well, the next day, a commercial came on TV and the boy exclaimed, "There's a frickin' elephant." Again, she gently reminded him NOT to say frickin'. He was confused but agreed with his mother's rebuke. Finally, the mother sat down with the boy to read a book about animals. The boy pointed to the gray, floppy-eared animal and said, "See mom! Right there it says! A frickin' elephant."
Indeed, the caption said, "African elephant."
We had two funny learning moments lately from each of our boys.
First off, we were listening to some Jon Foreman (of Switchfoot) songs and while I was deep in appreciation for the lyrics, Micah blurted out, "Why did he say Africa, Dad?" Huh. I knew there was no context for "Africa" in this song. Next time the chorus came around, I listened closely.
"So why should I worry/Why do I freak out?"
Do you see it? When the SoCal songwriter sang, "I freak out," it sounded almost exactly like Africa. We all had a good laugh when we realized the misunderstanding.
Secondly, Asher's been having some separation anxiety lately. We think he realizes all of the change that is just around the corner. One day, he was sitting through a sermon at our home church in San Diego. He was behaving very well, coloring and writing on the bulletin.
When suddenly his head popped up, and he repeated the words he thought he had just heard. "Cinnamon roll?" he excitedly asked. Heather and I looked at each other and rewound Pastor Kenny's last few words in our minds. We smiled at each other and whispered, "Sin of the world."
Sin of the world or cinnamon rolls? I guess we each hear what we want to hear.
