This morning I observed my daughter pretending to talk to someone on her play cell phone. She does this quite often, and it's fun to listen in on her imaginative conversations.
This morning when I asked her who she was talking to she replied matter-of-factly, "Jesus." After I finished chuckling to myself I waited to see where her conversation would go. (Birthday parties, seeing her cousins or grandparents, and going to the grocery store are her favorite subjects.)
"Jesus, the girl at the playground yelled at me and told me to 'go away'! Can you help me?" she asked earnestly.
I knew of the incident she was talking about, and it was so sweet I couldn't help but get alittle teary. See, we've been talking with her a lot lately about being kind, even when other people are unkind. We tell her that it's hard for Daddy and Mommy to do that too, but we can always ask Jesus to help us. Her "make believe" phone call to Jesus encouraged me to keep pressing on...it's been a particularly challenging season in disciplining her.
It reminded me of the passage in Matthew that calls us to be like little children, being dependent on our Heavenly Father. How quickly we revert to our independent ways and bypass the grace that God gives to the humble.
Truly, there is no room for self-sufficiency where Christ reigns as king. Not in my daugher's heart as she seeks to respond with kindness; not in my heart as I seek to train her in godliness.
9 comments:
How sweet, Krista. And how sweet to know what you've been speaking to her is taking root in her heart!
Obviously, she is listening to you! That is wonderfully sweet!
Oh....what a sweet story! A memory truly blog-worthy!
That's just precious, Krista. I, too, can relate to having a challenging season with disciplining.
Though we may not see the fruits of our efforts for quite some time, it's always reassuring to know that what we're teaching our children is really there in their hearts. I've been reminded so many times recently that I must strive to not only teach godly values, but more importantly, model them.
You're doing a great job - keep it up!
That reminds me of how, when my children did something mean, I used to make them go to their bedroom and talk to Jesus about it until they felt sorry for what they did. I remember the time I stood outside Anthony's bedroom door to listen, and he was in there crying and complaining up a storm - to Jesus. It brought tears to my eyes too.
Aww, what a sweet moment to witness.
These are definitely the little evidences of grace worth keeping record of. We all need to see it and hear it to not grow weary in doing good.
Those are the moments that make all the teaching suddenly seem very, very worthwhile!
Aliza
Adeline is having a particularly difficult morning. Stories like this warm my mommy heart. I know our words are sinking in there somewhere.
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