Did you know that the skill of recognizing personal space boundaries needs to be taught?

Think about it for a second. Picture the last time you hung out with a three-year-old. How close was his face to your face when he told you about his favorite dinosaur? Stay-at-home parent or helper grandparent—how many times today alone did your toddler bump or lean her body into yours for no apparent reason? Have you ever seen how four-year-olds line up? It’s tighter than the Fast Pass Lane at Disney.

As adults, we probably dismiss these quirky behaviors in our kiddos because we’re either distracted or so familiar with their ways that it just becomes background noise. In those crazy, busy seasons of life when we just want a break, it might even trigger us to get annoyed or frustrated.

But did you know that this behavior has a purpose? Several, actually.

• It’s a form of sensory-seeking behavior that helps them self-regulate and manage overstimulation.
• It can be part of their nonverbal communication as a way to initiate play, show affection, or get attention.
• It can be used to increase feelings of security or decrease feelings of anxiety.

Even though we go through all the work of teaching them more socially appropriate ways of meeting these needs, the needs don’t go away. I can’t even count the number of times in the past week that I’ve struggled to communicate my thoughts clearly or unsuccessfully attempted to manage feeling overstimulated.

As adults, we put so much importance on defining and standardizing the way we solve problems, but I think there’s something special about the nonstandard way a kiddo goes about meeting those needs that’s more effective.

And God knew that right from the beginning.

The Bible is full of unique and powerful ways he provides us with solutions to our struggles that adult logic and social rules don’t give us access to.

• He tells us in the book of Romans that we don’t need the perfect words to express our struggles to God. “Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans” (8:25,26 MSG).
• He reminds us to spend time in nature when we’re feeling stressed because he created nature to testify to his love, mercy, and power. “Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds” (Matthew 6:26 MSG).
• God created the practice of Baptism to promise and reassure us of our status as forgiven, loved, saved children of God and brothers of our Savior Jesus. “At this time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. The moment he came out of the water, he saw the sky split open and God’s Spirit, looking like a dove, come down on him. Along with the Spirit, a voice: ‘You are my Son, chosen and marked by my love, pride of my life’” (Mark 1:9-11 MSG).

There’s nothing “standard” about how God connects with us. And in honor of that, this week I challenge you to find a more childlike, nonstandard way to connect with God.

Sing “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know” out loud when you have to go down to the creepy storage room at work. Take a walk in a local park and collect a whole pocket full of sparkly rocks just because they remind you that you are God’s creation. Find out when the next Baptism is happening at your local church and go witness it. (Or, if you’ve never been baptized, email us so that we can tell you all about what it means and the hope that it brings.)

God isn’t worried about personal space boundaries. He doesn’t mind if you’re a close talker. He wants you to bump into him and lean on him 24/7. What are you waiting for?!