Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Swiper, No Swiping

Coralyn has fallen in love…with Dora and Diego. I know that I have mentioned her interest in these characters before, but recently she’s been asking to watch a Dora or Diego episode as soon as she wakes up. She would rather watch them than eat her breakfast! If you know Coralyn at all, you know that is huge; the girl loves to eat!

We do wait until after breakfast to turn on the TV, but getting Coralyn out of her pajamas and dressed for the day is another story. She simply doesn’t have the patience for such trivial things when Dora and Diego are waiting for her. I love watching her as she participates throughout the show. She is going to be speaking Spanish better than me before long (really that doesn’t take too much). And now when we are in the car and come to an intersection, I hear her saying, “Which path should we take? This path or that path? We should go right.” Plus, she is starting to count objects now, not just randomly running off a list of numbers. She loves animals too, and is able to identify quite a few (even uncommon ones) when we read books. I love that she is learning new things and having fun in the process.

Coralyn is a passionate little girl and, as Jeanne says, she does everything with gusto. Coralyn doesn’t know what half-hearted means; she goes all out, all the time. The same is true when she is watching Dora or Diego. I try not to laugh at her, but it’s super cute and funny to watch her jump up and down or dance or shout out answers. I always know when Swiper or the Bobo Brothers have entered the episode. Coralyn gets extremely upset and starts crying. She yells for them to go away, screaming, “No, no, no!” And she doesn’t relax again until Dora and Boots have scared Swiper away or the Bobo Brothers have said sorry for whatever trouble they were causing. I figured that Coralyn would know by now that Swiper hardly ever gets away with stealing something and the Bobo Brothers always freeze before anything too terrible happens. I always try to reassure her that everything is going to be okay, but every time Swiper or the Bobo Brothers make an appearance she gets really worked up.

This got me thinking. I know, I know…I’m always coming up with some weird life connection when I watch kids’ shows or read children’s books. I guess I just can’t help myself. Anyway, I got to wondering if I am as nonchalant about Satan as I am about Swiper and the Bobo Brothers. Have I gotten so accustomed to his sneaky tricks or seemingly innocent attempts to botch things up that I don’t pay attention to him, let alone get upset that he is making an appearance in God’s story? I think I shrug him off when really I should respond more like Coralyn and insist earnestly that he leave, immediately. I need to shout out, “No, no, no!” and “Go away!” at the first indication he is sneaking into my life. Maybe he is trying to swipe my joy by overwhelming me with life’s worries or create chaos so I get flustered and impatient with the girlies. Whatever the case may be, he is up to no good. I know how the story will end. Just like Dora and Boots ultimately send Swiper away and Diego fixes whatever problem the Bobos created, God will be victorious over Satan. BUT, in the meantime, I need to be aware of Satan trying to ruin the work God is doing in my life. And as soon as I notice him, I need to get rid of him.

Thankfully, I will have a daily reminder to be on the alert for Satan and his sneaky little tricks. Every time Coralyn watches a Dora or Diego episode, and I hear her frantic cries for Swiper or the Bobo Brothers to leave, I will mentally shout out for Satan to scram as well.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Blog Archive