"Mommy, where's Jesus?"
This is what Seth asked me a few days after Christmas when we were still talking to him about what Christmas means. Seth has been able to see, touch and experience everyone else that we've talked to him about - except for Jesus. And when he asked this, it filled me with sadness and anger cause here's our little son, with such innocent curiosity, just wanting to know who and where this Jesus is that his parents talk about so much. Ya! Where is this God we talk about? I kinda got upset with God like how come He hasn't shown Himself to Seth yet?? Why does my son have to wait in suspense when he truly eagerly wants to see Him? Whatever, I had to just let my emotions go. So instead of trying to figure out a cool answer myself, I put the responsibility on God to answer for Himself! So I asked Holy Spirit what He wanted me to answer for Him. I said, "He's with us right now and one day, your gonna see Him face to face and it's gonna be awesome!!" I used the analogy of wind, how wind is there even if we can't see it. And I just kinda had to leave it at that and trust that in time, God is gonna show Himself to Seth...and it'll be awesome.
All this reminded me of a dream where the basic point of it was that God wanted our children to know Him intimately and not because of what we've told them about Him but because they've experienced Him themselves. He doesn't want them to know religion, He wants them to KNOW HIM through personal encounter and experience with Him. Too many children (me included in this statistic) that grow up in Christian homes end up falling away cause they get tired of pretending to love a God they barely know. They get tired of trying to be obedient to impress and win God's love. Tired of hearing cool stories about God never getting to experience or see it for themselves. Tired of being forced to follow traditions yet never truly knowing the person behind the traditions. The list of religious activities and thinking is endless. Point is, God is encouraging us to point our children to Him and leave the rest to Him. So for anyone who cares to read on, here's some ways we're pointing our children to Him...
We've come to love bedtime routines with Seth cuz it's one of the rare moments of the day where he's at peace and willing to listen to what we've gotta say. So after a nice bath and a little chase in his bed, we tuck him in and he gets ready to have some fun. We read, we sing, love to go through ABC's and 123's. Most of all, we love to tell him stories. We made up this character named Solomon who's got a similar life to Seth and he's become quite an imaginary friend for Seth, but it's been amazing cause he knows Solomon's a bit older and really admires and looks up to him.
Through these imaginative and creative stories, we're able to teach Seth Kingdom principles and share about who God is to us. Like knowing that God is a God of justice and cares and fights for us. A simple story of when a kid stole Solomon's toy that he was playing with and how Solomon talked to his mom and dad about it and let them talk to the other kid to solve everything. A lota nonsense happened to us this past year, a lot of little injustices that we knew were an attack from the enemy and when any injustice happens, there's such a temptation to handle it ourselves, fight for ourselves but as we've learned this past year, God is so much better at bringing justice and restoration to things than we ever could. Everyone's trying to grow up and we're just trying to grow down and have faith and dependency on God like children and that's what we wanna teach Seth, how to run to God when injustices or disappointment or failure come. Or a story of Solomon experiencing bullying and learning how to deal with it in a healthy way…Solomon did his best to forgive the bully and went as far as buying the bully an ice cream and how it changed the bully's heart - why would someone care about him after he's treated them like that? Or the first time Solomon experienced rejection and learning how to deal with it in a healthy way. We care about Seth learning how to care for his body, soul and spirit because God cares about his whole self.
Then past all the Solomon stories, it's living it all out in front of Seth. We know kids are like sponges, constantly listening, watching and soaking up everything they can catch with their senses. So as much as we can, we wanna live out life with Jesus with all our brokenness and imperfections but also with all the glory and joy of it all. That he could see how life prospers with God, even through the ups and downs, how life is just so much better with Him.
Also, during our bedtime routine and pretty much all throughout the day, we are intentional at speaking our children's identity and destiny over them. A friend of ours once said, "Satan's greatest fear is that you would know who you are and become it." DANG!!! But it's so true, I done been through that!! From the beginning of time, Satan has made man question their identity and God's identity. Some of mankind's deepest desires are to know who they are and know what they were created for. Even before our children were conceived, God's been sharing with us who they'd be and He did this so that we can be praying for them to grow up living out the fullness of their identity and destiny He's given them….also so that we can be speaking it over them.
And growing up in an environment where the opposite was spoken over me, I totally understand the power of the words we speak. It was a lot of negativity, a lot of "why can't you be more like this person?" So how did I grow up? Becoming exactly who they spoke over me, I became rebellious, stubborn and hard-hearted. I wonder how different I'd be if they'd spoken the truth of who I was meant to be instead of speaking just to my behaviour. But meh, my parents didn't know any better and I don't blame them, I just know I wanna chart a new course for our children and future generations! So whenever we can, we wanna sow truth into our children and look forward to watching them grow up having a deep awareness of who they are. And sure they'll question their identity, but we'll know the truth of who God says they are will be deeply planted in their hearts. And the truth always sets us free.
"Seth, you really care about things that are lost huh? Did you know that's cause God ultimately created you to care about the lost?" Who cares if he has a clue of what we're saying, his soul is soaking the truth up! Even when Seth is being adamantly disobedient, I fight to speak the opposite over him, "Seth, c'mon, you're better than this, you're amazing at listening to mommy!" You'd be surprised at how quick his little heart responds to words of affirmation so much so that most times he slows down and starts to listen and actually respond with obedience because his mommy is choosing to believe in who he really is instead of just reacting to his bad behaviour….a great book on stuff like this is "Loving Our Kids on Purpose" by Danny Silk. Check it. Live it.
Also, during our bedtime routine and pretty much all throughout the day, we are intentional at speaking our children's identity and destiny over them. A friend of ours once said, "Satan's greatest fear is that you would know who you are and become it." DANG!!! But it's so true, I done been through that!! From the beginning of time, Satan has made man question their identity and God's identity. Some of mankind's deepest desires are to know who they are and know what they were created for. Even before our children were conceived, God's been sharing with us who they'd be and He did this so that we can be praying for them to grow up living out the fullness of their identity and destiny He's given them….also so that we can be speaking it over them.
And growing up in an environment where the opposite was spoken over me, I totally understand the power of the words we speak. It was a lot of negativity, a lot of "why can't you be more like this person?" So how did I grow up? Becoming exactly who they spoke over me, I became rebellious, stubborn and hard-hearted. I wonder how different I'd be if they'd spoken the truth of who I was meant to be instead of speaking just to my behaviour. But meh, my parents didn't know any better and I don't blame them, I just know I wanna chart a new course for our children and future generations! So whenever we can, we wanna sow truth into our children and look forward to watching them grow up having a deep awareness of who they are. And sure they'll question their identity, but we'll know the truth of who God says they are will be deeply planted in their hearts. And the truth always sets us free.
"Seth, you really care about things that are lost huh? Did you know that's cause God ultimately created you to care about the lost?" Who cares if he has a clue of what we're saying, his soul is soaking the truth up! Even when Seth is being adamantly disobedient, I fight to speak the opposite over him, "Seth, c'mon, you're better than this, you're amazing at listening to mommy!" You'd be surprised at how quick his little heart responds to words of affirmation so much so that most times he slows down and starts to listen and actually respond with obedience because his mommy is choosing to believe in who he really is instead of just reacting to his bad behaviour….a great book on stuff like this is "Loving Our Kids on Purpose" by Danny Silk. Check it. Live it.
Ahhh, as usual, I've said too much and my fingers and back hurt…haha, gotta fight this old age!! Anyway, we're living and praying not just for ourselves but for the generations following us. That though the world will be even darker than it is now, God's light will shine even brighter through our children. That in the midst of darkness, our children will be the Daniels of their day…they will "do mighty exploits because they KNOW THEIR GOD." Daniel 11:32NKJV
- tami
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