"I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away'......I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.....Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life."--Revelation 21:2-4, 22 & 27.
When I was 6 years-old (the latter part of my kindergarten year), my family attended an Alliance Church in Louisville. One day my Sunday school teacher, Mrs. Lolly, who seemed incredibly ancient at the time, told us about the Lamb's book of life. She said the Bible talked about this book, and whoever had their name written in it would go to heaven. I can't remember another single thing we learned in her class, but that idea stuck with me. I went home determined to get my name in that book, and asked my mom for help.
She explained to me that we are sinful, like when I would fight with my sister, or disobey her or my dad. Because of our sins, we needed forgiveness before God to be able to be in his presence in heaven. The problem was (and still is) that there is nothing we can do to earn his forgiveness. Only a perfect sacrifice would be acceptable to God, and since none of us are perfect, Christ (who I later learned was God in the flesh, also God's son, the third person of the Trinity) came and died in our place. She told me that if I confessed my sin to God, and invited Jesus into my life and into my heart, that I would be forgiven of all sin, and my name would be written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
I remember after that, asking my mom to write my name in my Bible on the page that separated the Old and New Testaments. I wanted a visual reminder of my salvation. It's funny because I look back and realize that at the time, there was so little of my faith that made sense. But as I grew, the pieces came together more and more. By the time I was in middle school, my nickname became "Thumper" (short for Bible thumper, someone told me) because I was always talking to the other kids about Jesus. I wanted them all to discover the joy of a relationship with God, and to go to heaven, of course. In my zeal, I'm sure I was fairly obnoxious, but I really cared for people.
Looking back, I'm so grateful that I came to know the Lord at an early age. Some have told me that they don't think it's possible for children that young to understand the gospel, but my memory of the whole thing is so vivid, I'm certain that it happened for me, and I know of others with similar experiences.
Lately, as I've been praying for Lewis, that is one of my main requests, that he would grasp the gospel early, come to know Christ, and avoid a lot of sin that could entangle and harm him. Becoming a Christian does not ensure a perfect life, but my prayer is that Lewis would grow to love the Lord and desire to please him, trusting him with everything. We pray for wisdom to raise him to be a leader and to go against the flow of society when it goes against God's revealed will in scripture. I'm looking forward to the day when Lewis might point me toward the truth when I inevitably lose my cool or whatever. He will see me at my worst, no doubt!
Anyway, I was curious if any of you had anything that you pray for often for your kids. Maybe it's because of your own faith journey (which you can post as well, if you want), or maybe you start praying and end up somewhere unexpected. If you have anything you'd like to share, we would all certainly benefit.
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Tonight I was praying for Taylor and a new prayer occurred to me. I prayed for her to have friends who are Christians as she grows up. Despite being in church my entire growing-up years, those kids at church during elementary school never were my at my school. And it's the kids you go to school with who really influence you and are your support system, not the kids you see only on Sundays. My friends in elementary school were good kids and much too young for moral differences to really affect things. But I remember really wanting to tell them about Jesus (after I became a Christian at age 7). But when you tell a good kid about Jesus, they really don't see what's different. They went to church, after all. Throughout school, my friends never were able to be a support for my faith. Thankfully, they weren't a detriment either. But I longed for Christian friends. I pray that Taylor will have Christian friends, and later a Christian boyfriend. Honestly, in high school, the only reason I attached myself to the guy I did as a boyfriend is that he was the ONLY Christian guy I was remotely compatible with. Not until college did I find a whole world of Christians to surround myself with. So this is a long post, but it'll be up to God to put Taylor in the school, and the class, with the kids who he wants her to grow up with. - Sarah
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