Lessons from a Two-Year Old (part 2)

Trains & Tractors, Cows & Crocodiles … dysfunctional attention span

Yesterday, we saw no matter how cute, two-year olds create messes. And no matter how adorable you THINK you are, you too make a mess in life. But God loves us anyway.

My philosophy of life is so very simple. It can be defi … SQUIRREL … where was I?

I learned a lot about the attention span (or lack thereof) of a two-year old. And it’s not very long. My wonderful kid wants something, then immediately, wants something else. But there are other times he focused on something and would not change his focus no matter what. He would be so extremely fixed.

Early in the week, it was trains. We live in ear and eye shot of the Norfolk & Western Railways. And on day one, it happened. We heard the horn and engine of a train coming through town. My wife took the little tyke out to see it. Though a 1/4-mile away, he watched and watched. He wouldn’t leave the yard until the train was out of sight and out of hearing range.

Then for the rest of the week, with every sound of a train, he wanted to go outside and watch. When he heard I was riding in on a train, he easily got into his car seat to go greet me (and really to see the train.) Trains. But he missed my arrival. This did not go over well.

We went to the local playground that has a little-red caboose you can climb on and play. Wheels to turn, levers to pull, and steps to climb.

We watched YouTube clips of trains, we played with trains, and we … SQUIRREL. Trains were forgotten after we saw a tractor travel in front of our house. Now, it’s tractors.

So we got in the FJ and we traveled around. Fortunately, we liven farm country USA, so we stopped at a few farms and got to get up close and personal.

We went out to Tractor Supply and got him a toy John Deere and a John Deere shirt.

From the farms, we also saw cows. Now it’s cows in which he is interested. Most the cows were hiding in the woods. It was the shade from the heat. So we drove around looking for cows.

From cows, he moved on to crocodiles. I have a collection of them amongst my toys … oops, I mean action figures and props.

The average attention span of an adult is 8.3 seconds. The attention span of a goldfish is 9 seconds. Goldfish have longer attention spans than most people. WOW!

Today’s Lesson – We all have a really hard time to focus, even on the important things.

I get distracted, too easily. I know I should give more attention to studying, to being a better husband and father, and most importantly to the Lord and my relationship with Him.

I focus on one thing and then straight to another. I get distracted real easily. It’s like the apostles falling asleep when Jesus went to pray. Or like the Israelites that quickly lost sight of what God had done once Moses went up on the mountain. They turned to cows too, a golden calf to be exact.

The Lord had to say repeatedly to remain vigilant. Hebrews 12 is very clear, fix our eyes in Jesus. Lay aside anything that would stop us from running the race before us and keeping our eyes on Him.

I ask, why does the toddler (and myself, and you) have such short attention span. The Happiest Baby blog tells of several reasons …

• Your child simply isn’t interested. Attention spans often get longer when your child is super interested in the task at hand—and then shrink back down when they’re less into the task. That’s why your kid may be able to sit in rapture during an entire Disney movie, but fuss and fidget in church.
• They’re in a chaotic environment. Being in a space with lots of distractions, like loud noises and flashing lights is very distracting, which chips away at attention.
• Your child is hungry. Research shows that children who are hungry are simply unable to focus, resulting in a short attention span.
• They’re stressed. Chronic stress overloads the attention system in the brain, which hinders one’s ability to stay focused, according to research. (Chronic stress in children can come from such situations as abuse, neglect, and poverty.) 
• Your child is tired. When children don’t get enough sleep, they can have problems with memory, problem-solving—and attention.

To which one of these do you connect? It may also be we are so used to being entertained, that anything that doesn’t live up to our expectations of entertainment, of pleasing me, causes me to look elsewhere.

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Main Point – I need to focus more, keeping my eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. I need to put hedges, guardrails around my path to keep me on the straight and narrow, I need to remember His love for me (and that keeps my interest) and simplify my life (to remove chaos) and stay nourished and rested (to stay physically and mentally strong as to not weaken my defenses against the enemy.)

So turn your eyes upon Jesus … and don’t turn away. Nothing is more important than Him.

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Tomorrow … Why do we give a toddler choices?