🌸 Let Her Teach You Something

Scripture: “A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.” — Proverbs 1:5, KJV

A MOMENT to be the one who doesn’t know.

There is a particular look a child gives you when you ask for help with your phone.

A little disbelief. A little concern. Perhaps a quiet question about how you’ve managed to survive this long.

Then come the instructions.

“Mom. Right there.”

Apparently, “right there” is a technical term I should understand.

We spend so much of motherhood teaching. How to say thank you. How to handle disappointment. How to clean a bathroom in a way that involves more than making it smell like something happened.

We explain, demonstrate, remind, and occasionally repeat ourselves from another room.

But our children are learning things we don’t know. They have interests we haven’t explored, skills we haven’t developed, and ideas we might miss if we’re always the ones doing the explaining.

What happens when we let them be the teacher?

Maybe your child knows how to draw something you can barely turn into a stick figure. Maybe she can explain a game, introduce you to an author, or show you why a particular song means so much to her.

We don’t have to become experts in everything they enjoy. We can be curious enough to ask.

“Can you show me how you did that?”

“What do you like about it?”

“Wait, explain that part again. I want to understand.”

And then comes the harder part: letting them answer without taking over.

Without turning their interest into a lesson about careers. Without offering a better method halfway through. Without deciding that because it’s unfamiliar to us, it must not be important.

Sometimes an interest can simply be something we enjoy discovering together.

There is something tender about being invited into a child’s world. Especially as they get older and we realize how much of that world exists beyond our view.

An invitation may arrive disguised as a long explanation, a video, a strange fact, or a request to watch them do something “one more time.”

We won’t catch every invitation. Some days we’re tired. Some explanations really do require more concentration than we have left.

But we can return.

“You were telling me about something earlier. Show me now.”

I believe God can grow our humility in these ordinary exchanges. We can be responsible adults who still have something to learn. We can guide our children and also delight in what they bring to the relationship.

Today, let your child know something you don’t.

Ask for the demonstration. Listen to the explanation. Be willing to need a second try.

And if she sighs while helping you find the button on your phone, you can gently remind her that you once taught her how to use a spoon.

With love, of course.

Pause & Reflect

What does my child enjoy or do well that I could ask them to teach me?

A Small Practice

Set aside ten minutes this week and say, “You choose. Show me something you enjoy.” Let your child lead, and give them your attention.

A Simple Prayer

Lord, keep me curious about the person my child is becoming. Help me make room for their ideas, appreciate their abilities, and receive what they have to teach me. Amen.

There is still so much to discover about the people we love.

Monica Lynne Wilkins
Every MOMENT Matters.