A Moment

Hello everyone,
Today I had a moment.
A moment where time stood still and I knew that I would remember this day for the rest of my life.
Every night before my kids go to sleep, we have bible story time. Well, that’s not true. I try to stir up everything within to be spiritual and tell them something that they will remember about God. Most nights, it happens, but other nights are just busy and a tired mom can only put her children to bed.

Tonight was a night where heaven met earth.

Let me give you a little history.
Two sundays ago, a friend of mine, Shelley Hundley (name drop) gave an incredible message. One thing she said stuck out to me. She was not a believer in college and a group of Christians at her school started praying for the Lord to save her and encounter her. They knew that if God could save Shelley, anything could happen. This group of believers on Shelley’s campus, started praying for her daily. She eventually came to know Christ.

This got me thinking. How often do I pray for my unsaved friends? So that very day, I sat down and started praying. Specifically for my friend Nathan. My kids came in and saw me kneeling down with tears in my eyes. They of course were worried for me. I ended up explaining all about hell and told them to pray with me for my friend Nathan, that he would not go to hell and that Jesus would encounter him.

Today, we drove by a funeral home. My kids have never asked before, but for some reason, today they asked. “Mom, what is that building?” I went on to explain about when we die, we get buried in the ground and our spirits either go to heaven or hell. That kind of confused them, but they knew the heaven and hell part.

Audrey nearly started crying saying that she never wanted to die. Then of course I start telling them about heaven and how we will get to be with Jesus forever.
Conversation ended.

Tonight, after a busy crazy day, I sat down with the kids. I had yelled at them just 30 minutes before for their bad attitudes and had to repent for my anger. I am just saying this to let you know that I am not some super spiritual amazing mother. I struggle with anger. I am not perfect. But I am quick to repent and I know that it takes effort to stir myself up at the end of the day and tell them about Jesus, so I do it. Tonight, I told them about Mary of Bethany. We talked about pouring out perfume on Jesus’ feet and loving Him with our whole hearts.

Somehow we got talking about heaven and hell again. We went into specifics this time. We talked about the lake of fire and people that don’t know Jesus who will burn in hell for ever. The kids all got tears in their eyes. Then we talked about Jesus and how we will be in heaven with Him forever, worshipping Him, dancing, eating good food and talking with all the heroes of the bible. Then we talked about hell again and about how important it is to obey God, and our parents and love each other and give to each other. We talked about evil men and women and how they have turned their backs on God.

Audrey looked at me crying, asking to go to heaven to be with Jesus. She said, “why do I have to be here on earth? I want to go to heaven!”

This broke my heart. My daughter, who just turned six, is yearning for eternity in a way that I wasn’t. I am happy here. I am content to go about my day and sleep in my bed and wake up and drink delicious coffee. Tears were streaming down her face tonight, because she was not satisfied with her life and wanted to be with Jesus.

Then we prayed.
Each one of my children were in tears. Each one of them closed their eyes and prayed for Nathan to come to know Jesus so that he wouldn’t burn in hell for eternity.
Then we prayed for our own lives. That we would love righteousness and hate wickedness and we would love, serve, and follow Jesus all the days of our lives.

Tonight, I am convicted by my children. They have shown me how to hunger and thirst for righteousness. They have shown me how to long for another age.
Today was a long, hard day. I did not feel spiritual. I did not feel righteous. I have no goodness apart from Jesus.

I have always struggled to feel that I was doing enough, and teaching my children enough about Jesus. When they were 2 and 3 years old and I would sit and have bible story time, they didn’t take it seriously. Guess what? I took it personally. As if it were my fault they weren’t more spiritual and talked about Jesus all the time. I thought to myself that I was doing something wrong and I had to change my approach or if I had just let them watch less movies, then they would hunger for Jesus more.
Guess what? They were just young. They didn’t have the brain capacity to understand what I was even saying to them. Now, they are older. They are starting to get it.

My point is this. God uses weak people, in seemingly unimportant moments of life, to glorify Himself. I am just a weak person, a mom, who is trying the best I can (and I fail miserably), to teach my children about Jesus. My hope is that in my weakness and in the mundane, hard, trying, tiring, moments of my day, that suddenly, in a moment God will show up and glorify Himself. Tonight was one of those moments. My heart is happy, convicted, provoked, and needing more of Jesus.

I hope this encourages you in the journey that you are on. Keep persevering and pressing on, because in a moment, God can come and reveal Himself and glorify His Son.
Blessings tonight!
Anna