At 13 months old she started reading!

I just want to share an excerpt of this amazing story!

...

Katy Barrett and her husband, Michael, are speech pathologists, and when Elizabeth was born they started teaching her sign language along with spoken language. They read to her often, and her favorite television program — the only one her parents let her watch — was a PBS show called “Signing Times,” which teaches kids sign language.

Yet, as much as her parents worked to stimulate her language skills, they were as astonished as anyone when she started picking out words and reading them, especially as they never attempted to teach her to read.

“We tried to do everything we could to try to stimulate her language growth,” Michael Barrett told Curry. “From day one Katy has been using sign language with her. We think anything relating to language is a good thing to nurture.”

Even so, he went on, that wouldn’t be enough to teach Elizabeth to read. “I think there’s more to it than that,” he said. “I think she has some special abilities that have just been a fortunate thing she’s been born with.”

“This is something we never expected,” added his wife. “We didn’t teach her this. We don’t sit down and drill her on words. She loves reading books.”

...

In fact, they said, the reason they called their local NBC affiliate with their daughter’s story was because they wanted to reach out to experts who could help them deal with Elizabeth’s abilities.
On Monday, they were surprised to discover that Elizabeth had talents they weren’t aware of. While Schwartz was talking, Curry wrote a word in script on the back of a sheet of paper, then showed it to Elizabeth.

“That’s cursive,” Michael Barrett started to say.
“Ba-by,” Elizabeth interrupted.
“She reads cursive?” Curry exclaimed.
Replied Katy Barrett, “We didn’t know that.”

The full story! http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/23556514?GT1=43001

Man was made to serve.

Genesis 2:8; "The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed."

Now check out Philippians 2:7; "(Jesus) ...emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men."

What am I getting at?

I have heard it before, but connected it again this past Sunday: Man was made to serve.

God made man. God made the Garden of Eden. God put man in the garden. God gave man the responsibility of taking care of the garden (and everything else in the world). God gave us power over all living things. God also gave us choice.

So, we were made to serve God and each other. Adam served Eve, and vice versa. Adam was made first, Eve as his helpmate (perfectly matched companions, responsible to each other).

But we exercised our choice to eat the fruit. By doing so, we experienced pain for the first time. Some want to say we got smarter, but, no, we just realized we cut off our ability to have eternal life, sadness. We realized our nakedness, shame. We realized the inherent power structure, slavery - or so we thought.

We tried to compensate for our sadness, shame, and slavery. We sought out a variety of coverings, like masks, just hiding the wounds, until we came to know God's providence through sacrifice.