I’m pretty sure my love for these tiny smelly fish flows from my mom. I think she’s responsible. I have a distinct mind photo of her peeling back the tin lid with that cool key.

I’m a fan ever since. Packed in oil or tomato sauce. Smoke or unsmoked. No matter. Sardines and crackers with a dark beer on the back porch? Be still my soul.

My family dumps sardines in the same trashcan with other loves revealing my origins. 

Collard greens. Fried chicken livers and gizzards. Okra. Head cheese. Liver and onions. Cow’s tongue. Blood sausage.

(Just typing the list makes my stomach growl.)

Epicurean loves from my childhood have only grown stronger as the years pass.

(Anyone for a fried spam sandwich?)

I often hear from parents their uncertainty of how to share Jesus with their young children. What devotions to use? “I don’t know enough about God to teach them.”

People simply read me Jesus stories when I was little. We did the same with our kids. 

From infancy we just read the Bible to them. Started with an age-appropriate children’s Bible that included both Old and New Testament stories. No explanatory details needed.

I got tired of reading the same stories over and over. My kids didn’t.

Children soak up words like sponges. That goes double for God’s Word.

God’s Word is powerful. It doesn’t return void but accomplishes that for which it’s intended. Which means we can simply read it and let God do His work through His Word.

“What’s that mean, mom?” “I’m not sure. Let’s read it again.”

Starting children early on God’s Word ensures they’ll still love that Word as the decades pass.

Much like a good sardine.