I saw fruit tonight. Praise The Lord for fruit! Not the kind that grows in trees or on vines. No, the figurative kind. The kind where you work hard at something, putting in time and effort day after day and finally you see the fruit of your labors. Tonight was just one piece, but it was a huge piece!
Last night I had a conversation with my 8 year old daughter about Jesus dying on the cross. This is not the first time she has heard the story of salvation, but in my "growing up" years, I remember that different parts of the story "clicked" at different stages in my life, so I will continue to tell her and her brother the story as they continue to mature.
We were discussing Moses and the Passover, how the Israelites would keep their firstborn safe if they smeared the lamb's blood on their door posts. I explained how this was a foreshadowing of another time in the Bible when blood would be upon another piece of wood. We talked about Jesus carrying the whole lot of all our sins; He became the bad guy so we could be the good guys. She began to cry. I asked her why and she replied, "I feel so bad for Him!" (This is where my Mommy heart was overwhelmed with gratefulness - she is starting to get it! But the story gets better...)
Fast forward to tonight. My stubborn (and if you've read the blog, you know she has an iron will) 8 year old has popped out of bed and is trying every trick in the book to get her way. Her tricks are not cute and are definitely not fun. They are exasperating. After some discussion (yes, discussion: I have learned that yelling makes everything 12x worse so the yelling only happens once in a while nowadays), I started pointing out the problem to her. I explained that her actions were the problem. She was making these decisions that were going to get her disciplined. She was following her own sinful self in order to get what she wanted and in the meantime was creating chaos in our house. I asked if she thought God was happy with how she was behaving. I told her that I thought it was kinda stinky that she would decide to disobey God after all He had done by sending Jesus to die on the cross.
She stopped yelling. She didn't cry. She simply got up, walked out of my room and disappeared. I found her in her room with her covers up to her chin. When I walked up to her, her hands were folded under her chin and her eyes were closed. I asked what she was doing. She replied,"Well, I'm trying to pray!" So I put my head down so I wouldn't disturb her and when she was done, I asked what she had prayed for.
"Forgiveness."
I could have jumped up and down right then. I felt like yelling at the top of my voice, "Praise God!!!" I know, doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but for me it's huge. This reaction has been my desire for years. Not weeks, not months...years. We have been pouring into our daughter for years. Today we saw the best fruit. She reached out to God. We did not force it. She chose it.
Now, I am under no illusions that we are going to see this happen every time. Nah, not a chance. But this showed me that she gets it.
You ever see fruit from all your labors with your children? Take it, savor it, take joy in it. That fruit is a gift from God telling you to keep trying! Keep up the good work! Be encouraged! And take hope: there will be fruit.
(Now back to Netflix and the next load of laundry!)
KC
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