'isaiah, mommy is ......'

a lot of times, growing up, we would have a devotion before school. a nugget of truth to take with us into the day. most of the time i was so stressed out about being late to school that i didn't really listen to what it was my dad was trying to impart. but there is one devotion that i remember to this day.

it was a devotion about jellyfish, dolphins and sharks. the gist was jellyfish get pushed around, even eaten. sharks are bullies and predators. dolphins are neither of these. they actually ram into sharks with their noses, protecting themselves and sometimes others from predators. don't be a shark or jellyfish, be a dolphin. simple enough. out of all the morning devotions don't ask me why that one stands out. but it does.

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fast forward many years, or rewind two from the present. matt and i are sitting with baby isaiah in front of the t.v. one evening. what ever we were watching prompted me to impart my wisdom about dolphins and sharks to matt. he thought i was blowing smoke. i knew i was right and so i got fired up real quick, telling him all about the devotional i heard when i was young. i challenged him to call my brothers, call my dad. dolphins do ram sharks and sharks flee. in a moment of - no doubt - frustration matt turned to baby isaiah and said in a severely sarcastic tone, 'isaiah...mommy's a marine biologist!'

that story has been told a number of times -- making it a legend of recent. rosemary, my sister-in-law, particularly loves the 'mommy is a marine biologist' story. every once in a while she'll bring it up out of no where, laughing the entire time. i think she loves it so much, partly because she doesn't believe the facts either, and because she loves that reserved, polite matt was sarcastic and put me in my place.

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a couple days ago while driving in the car with the kids isaiah said, 'look mommy! there is the sun!' i quickly said, 'don't look at it!' he loves to point out and look at the moon. i didn't want him to do the same with the sun.

'why?'
'well, because it will burn your eyes.'
'why?'
'it's hot.'
'why?'

in an effort to bring God into every why question i said, 'well, God made it that way.'

'why?'
'he made the sun to be hot so that it would warm the earth.'
'why did God say that?'
'well, he knew that was best for us.'

and that was the end of the conversation. a couple days later when we all were in the car isaiah said to matt, 'daddy, did you know that God said not to look at the sun because it will burn your eyes!'

really isaiah? really? that's what you got out of our conversation and that's what you're going to tell your theologian dad??!!

matt looks to me in question. i try to justify and explain. matt chuckles and makes some remark about my theology under his breath. i know i'm out of my league. in an effort to even the playing ground i make some remark about taking care of his children all day....

matt slowly turns around, looks at isaiah and says, 'isaiah, mommy is a geologist.'