A few weeks ago, Sunday, December 22, 2013 to be exact, we had gone to lunch after church and after that, Kevin ran into Sam's to pick up some batteries while the boys and I sat in the car. For some reason, Sam's parking lot has been the source of many God-centered conversations for us and this day proved to be no different.
I honestly can't remember how it came up, but somehow, we started talking about what a Christian is. We talk about Jesus with the boys daily, so a God-centered conversation wasn't out of the norm, but I guess we don't really use the word Christian too often and they wanted me to explain what that word meant again.
I told them that when you're a Christian, you believe that Jesus is God's Son and He came to earth to live and then died on a cross to take away all the bad things that we do. I reminded them about how we celebrate Jesus rising from the dead on Easter and how He's in heaven with God now and that how as Christians, we'll live with him forever after we die on this earth. I told them that these are the things Christians believe.
Immediately, they both said "We believe that!" Then they wanted to know what they have to do to be a Christian.
I told them that all they had to do was to believe these things and ask Jesus to live in their hearts. I told them that when they become a Christian and Jesus lives in their hearts, He'll lead them and guide them and take away all the bad things that they do and that when they die, they'll live forever with Him and all the other Christians.
At that moment, Kaden, who's only 4, wanted to know exactly what he had to ask Jesus so that He could be a Christian because he believed that. I told him that there aren't exact words to say or a certain way he had to say them to ask Jesus to live in his heart. And then, I heard some of the sweetest words I've ever heard: our sweet baby boy prayed in the sweetest voice and with these simple words, he asked our Savior to live in his heart.
Dear Jesus - I love you and want you to live in my heart. Amen!
He was so excited about it. K.C. began to ask me about getting baptized and how all of that works (We're Baptist and we believe in a public profession of faith followed by baptism.).
While I know that at 4 and 6, they don't understand all about faith and all about being a Christian (I know I don't have it all figured out at 27!), they do understand Jesus and His love for them.
This conversation and the retelling of it several times to family, has really made me think about faith and trust. This child-like faith comes really easy for the boys, but is it always that way for me? I like answers, I like plans and I like to know exactly what to do and why, but all God really asks of me is to trust Him. To follow Him. To let Him lead the way.
In this new year, I seek Him first. I want to follow Him and hear His voice. As I told someone recently, I can look in all areas of my life and see clearly how faithful God has been to me. Faith isn't about doing it all right, following a set of rules or checking off boxes. It's about believing in Him, trusting Him and following Him.Labels: boys, faith
