Childlike Faith

I was cleaning in my girls' rooms today and I dusted off one of my favorite pictures. It is a picture of Jesus with children. It made me think about my girls and the faith lessons that they have taught me. Their childlike faith moves mountains. When they pray they have no doubt that God is listening.

Last night my husband said that my middle daughter prayed that people would ask Jesus into their hearts. Tonight she prayed with me that everyone that comes to church would listen and be kind because we are there to learn about Jesus.

As I have written in the past, I prayed one nighttime prayer as a child and into my early adult years. "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep and if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." Then I would ask God to bless the people that I loved.

My children have never learned this prayer. From the time they started to pray they have started their prayers with "Dear Jesus. . .". They pray for anything and everything. In fact, on Saturday night, my littlest one prayed for a duck that had died. After she prayed she said, "Mommy, why did that duck have to die?"

A couple of weeks ago our youngest went to bed early. We took the opportunity to watch "The Passion" with our older girls. They are only 6 and 8 so we knew that we would be editing the parts that we knew they were not old enough to see. It still amazes me the impact that the movie had on them.

We did not edit out Satan and we explained to them that he is very real. It gave us an opportunity to also talk to them about the protection we have because we have Jesus in our hearts and the power of God to defeat him. We did not watch any of the scenes in which Jesus was beaten. However, we did let them watch Jesus carry His cross. My oldest daughter said to me, "Mom, if He wasn't the Son of God would He have lived through the beatings?" I told her that no I didn't think that He would have lived through them. I also was honest with her and told her that in real life Jesus would have looked much worse than He did in the movie. After I said this to her, the tears started to flow down her face.

She may only be 8, but her heart was aching for the pain that Jesus endured on that day. I believe with all of my heart that she also understands that the pain he endured was for her. After the movie we turned to the gospels and we continued the story. We read how Jesus visited the disciples and showed them the nail holes in His hands and feet. I didn't think our 6 year old was really paying much attention to the movie. After all, they are speaking Aramaic and she is just learning how to read. We would read to her the parts that we really wanted her to hear. When Jesus was on the cross, she did ask, "Are they casting lots for his clothes"" That made me know that she had been listening a couple of weeks ago when her dad read her the story of Easter.

We watched the movie on Saturday night. The girls went to Kids Church Sunday morning. I was kind of hoping the girls wouldn't talk about us letting them see the movie, too much. Most parents probably wouldn't have approved of us letting them see it when they are so young. I should know better. My middle child doesn't hold anything in. I think she might have told the entire story to her Kids Church helpers. At lunch that day she told us everything she had told them at church. One of the last things she said was, "And I told them that when Jesus went to His disciples they thought he was a ghost, but He showed them the nail holes and He said, ghosts don't have bones."

I guess she was watching and listening. They both were watching and listening. They may be young and people may say that they could not possibly understand. I disagree. They both will tell anyone that asks that they have Jesus in their hearts. They believe that He helps them sleep at night, He heals people that are sick and He protects them every day.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:1-4