“Oh, Brother!”

One Sunday I overheard a friend’s 5-year-old son talking with another little boy about the upcoming birth of my friend’s new baby.

The other boy asked, “What do you want, a brother or a sister?”

“Oh, I want a brother,” the 5-year-old replied.

“I don’t see why it matters,” said the other boy, “babies all look alike at that age, anyway.”

–Lynette Kittle

One morning before she went to school, my 5-year-old daughter, Caitlin, asked me to put her heart locket on her–a small gold one her father and I had given her for Christmas a few years before. In the car she told me, referring to the locket, “Mommy, do you know what I keep in here? All the love from you and Daddy and Sean and Brian [her brothers].”

She paused a moment, then continued, “Whenever I need strength or joy, I just reach into it and take a little out.”

“Hmm,” I said. “Whenever I need strength or joy, I reach inside myself, where Jesus lives, and get what I need.”

“I don’t keep all mine in there,” she replied. “It’s easier to get it from the locket!”

–Maureen D. Eha

My son thought he had found a biblical reason to abandon his math homework when he incorrectly read the admonition in Galatians 5:20 (NIV) to say that he should avoid “fractions.”

I laughed as I told him the word was “factions,” not “fractions.” But when I defined “faction” as a division in a large group of people, his eyes lit up. “See? I rest my case!” he said.

–Elaine L. Bridge

“Hey Annette! Put this on! He should be coming to any minute!”

“He who forgets the language of gratitude can never be on speaking terms with happiness.”

–E. C. McKenzie

Cartoon and caption: Reprinted from Close to Home Uncut by John McPherson (Andrews McNeel, 2000). Used by permission.