Toddler Praise

 Devotion for the Week...

I can't sing; this is a simple fact. However, when I'm with the kids I babysit, I often sing while we're having our dance parties or we sing the alphabet or some other little songs. A couple of weeks ago I was very amused when one of them looked at me in perfect sincerity and said, "You're a great singer!"

Toddlers offer the sweetest praise because they haven't learned to judge yet. They don't really know that bad singers exist, so they figure if you're singing then you're a good singer. The same goes for making art or running or whatever else they might decide to praise someone (or themselves!) for. Their praise is extra sweet because we know that they believe what they say to be true, even though we also know they don't know what they're talking about!

Sometimes I wonder if God gets amused when we praise Him, too, not because what we say isn't true, but because we can't possibly understand the magnitude of how true it is. We praise Him for His holiness, His love, His mercy, His goodness, His sustaining power, His healing and the list goes on and on. 

But we can't really understand His holiness. We are sinful people, after all. Forgiven, yes, but still dealing with a sinful nature and unable to be holy as He is holy. Our idea of holiness likely falls so incredibly short that it's laughable.

We can't properly understand His love, either. Honestly, I'd have a hard time coming up with something about God that I think we can fully understand from our human vantage point. After all, God Himself says, 'My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts...And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55: 8-9).

Not that I think we should stop praising God! Psalm 145 starts out, "I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever. I will praise you every day; yes, I will praise you forever. Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness" (Psalm 145:1-3). Praising Him helps us remember how worthy He is and it helps us focus on Him rather than on our circumstances.

Sure, we may not fully understand what we're talking about, but someday we will. Someday we will see Him in all His glory. We will know the full depth of His love for us and how much more vast it is than we ever realized. And then, like now, our best response will be praise.