Sophie - September 24, 2009 - Comments (2)
For the last few days my little boy has been working on a memory verse from Romans. Earlier this week we were on the way to soccer practice, and I asked him if he'd learned his verse yet.
"Not yet, Mama," he answered. "I mean, I know a little bit."
"Well, what do you know?"
"I know that it's Romans 15:13. And I know it's about hope. And that's about it."
While we were sitting at a stop light I grabbed my Bible, looked up the verse and read it out loud: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
Alex was quiet for a few seconds, and then he said, "You know what, Mama? That last part is the best."
"What part?"
"Overflowing with hope from the Holy Spirit, Mama. It's the best part!"
And you know what? It really is.
"Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!" - Romans 15:13, The Message
A couple of weeks ago I told y'all about how Beth Moore got a new iPhone and was so proud of it that she was carrying it around in a Ziploc bag so that nothing would happen to it.
Well, Melanie and I have often said that Beth and Priscilla can turn anything into a teachable moment, and Beth's Ziploc iPhone case was no exception.
Friday night Beth showed her phone-in-a-baggie to the women at Living Proof Live Pittsburgh, and she talked about how she didn't want anything to happen to it. No smudges. No nicks. No cracks. And she said that we often want to do the same thing in our lives. We want everything to be perfect, and not only that - we want it to stay perfect.
I immediately thought of my little boy and how much I want to protect him. I was just starting to make a list in my head of all the ways that I try to shield him from "the big bad world" when Beth said something that made me sit straight up in my seat:
"We can't put our lives in a baggie. We'd smother."
That's a good word, girls.
So I'm curious. How do you encourage your kids to be in the world but not of it without smothering them? How do you try to protect them from the stuff that could be damaging to their hearts but also teach them how to deal with that very same stuff? Since my little boy is only six, I know I'm not dealing with this nearly as much as those of you who have tweens and teens, so I can't wait to hear your wisdom.
See y'all in the comments.
We've experienced a "first" in our house the last couple of weeks. My son, Josiah has a friend in his second grade class who's mom has been very sick with breast cancer. Their second grade teacher is amazing and every year she encourages her entire class to run the kid's music city marathon here in Nashville. Well, this year it was even more special as every kid in the class trained for the marathon and they all ran for Connor's mom. The class made the news as they wore their pink bandanas, pins, wrist bands, and shoe laces. To say the least, it was powerful to watch these kids rally together and support the cause.
The battle ended a little over a week ago when Connor's mom went home to be with the Lord. Josiah was really sad, but as I expected, he embraced the fact that she was in heaven. The one thing I guess I didn't expect was that he began to talk about how old Connor's mom was and how old I was. Internally, I began to panic with the thought of God taking me home before my children were grown. We decided to go to the viewing and I was so glad we went. Many of Connor's buddies were there to hang out with him in the room where all the food was free! I saw Connor laugh and play in the midst of his pain.
So you know, Josiah accepted Christ one month before his 6th birthday. On the way home that night, he asked me, "Mom, what if I turn away from God? Will I still go to heaven?" What a grown up question. It gave me the opportunity to remind him that because he has chosen Jesus, he was in the palm of His hand, and God was never gonna let him go. He asked more questions and our walk through downtown Franklin, and driving home was one I will forever remember. He prayed for Connor and his family that night with sadness in his voice, but assurance of his own salvation. My little guy put on his sports coat that night and became a little man. I was very proud of him.
Have any of you had a similar experience? I would love to hear your stories. It's so amazing how God uses each of us to learn from each other, gain insight, encouragement, and grow closer to Him in the process.
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