Stories to Share

I blogged earlier about adoption and since then two things have happened today that I also wanted to share.

In the car today, we were listening to the Christian radio station and a man called in to request a song for two little girls having an end of the year swim party at their house. I thought that was sweet and it got me thinking about the responsibility of having a large group of children swimming on their own in a pool I owned. Scary. That thought led me to 1994 when I was 15 and a family in our church lost their 5 year old little boy when he drowned in a friend's pool. They weren't even swimming that day, but the little boy wandered away from the group and after being missing for only a few minutes, his teenage brother found him at the bottom of the pool. He actually lived for nearly a week on life support, but there was nothing they could do for him because they had also found an inoperable brain tumor that had been with him since conception. That was a horrific time in all of our lives watching that family grieve. Thinking about that made me think how thankful I am to Raylen by herself right now without other siblings until she matures. In my quiet moments, I long to add to our family, but with the very curious and energetic personality of our daughter, God knows exactly what He's doing. It takes all of my energy and attention to keep her from wandering off. Accidents will happen and having only one child does not prevent terrible things from occurring, but it gave me pause to be content and thankful in my current circumstance and not let my desires shadow God's provision in my life.

Secondly, this evening I am cleaning my house in preparation for my sister in law and her family to come and visit this weekend. I found myself bent over Raylen's bathtub scrubbing the ring of dirt that sticks after being washed from her active body. Raylen came to me, tapped me on the shoulder and told me "Mommy, God is telling me to give Him my heart." I think the scrub brush dropped out of my hand. "What did you say?" I asked her. "God wants me to give Him my heart, Mommy" a statement she made while gesturing toward Heaven. We entered into a conversation about how and why God loves us and what it means for us to trust Him and call Him Saviour. After we wrapped it up, I asked her if she wanted to tell Daddy and she went to him and repeated everything just as she told me. I can't tell you the thrill I have knowing that Raylen is hearing God and more importantly listening to Him! I have to give a shout out to our church and Pastor Cris and all the children's staff that are committed to teaching children, no matter what age the foundations of our faith. Above everything, we know that when we drop Raylen off at her class on Sundays, she is being taught Biblical truths that encourage her to follow Christ. We do our best as parents to teach her these things daily, but we know that we can't follow her in the world forever and so we rely on these teachers, her grandparents, her aunts and uncles, etc. to join us in shaping her faith. How exciting it is to watch her faith grow!