Blessing #58 - Simple Faith

Most of the time, Brandon struggles with focusing. It's just in his genes, he's a boy, and he's four years old are just a few of the reasons he doesn't focus on one thing for too long. For that reason, when Brandon's mind is thinking about Jesus, we always answer his questions. Shad and I call them our windows of opportunity. They pop up when you least expect it, and for some reason they always seem to happen in the car. One day, while we were riding down the road, B asked me, "How far away is heaven?" I told him it was very far away. It's so far we can't drive or fly to heaven. I explained the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus. Then he noticed a tractor, and just like that the window closed.

Shad and I both felt like we were making the right decision not pushing Brandon into salvation, and using our little windows of opportunity, but then Saturday, the window of opportunity became a door.

Shad and B were in the car when B asked, "Daddy, I need to ask Jesus in my heart to be my Savior so I can go to heaven." Shad turned the car around and came home to see me. He knew if B was going to trust in Jesus he wanted me to be there (he's a good husband like that). When they got home, Shad and I talked with Brandon, and then Brandon prayed the sweetest simple prayer and asked Jesus to save him. The next day at church, he excitedly told everyone that, "I asked Jesus to be my Savior, and He saved me!"

Both Shad and I agreed not to push him, but we were both astonished when he came right out and asked to be saved. I don't know why I was so surprised because that's exactly how I got saved. When I was six, I walked up to my first grade teacher at my Christian school and said, "I need to get saved!" (I was much more direct, and not nearly as eloquent as Brandon.)

I'm so thrilled that Brandon came to trust Christ early, but I wouldn't be fully honest if I didn't tell you that I am nervous. So many kids that get saved early struggle with assurance. I never struggled with that area, but I struggled with apathy. Jesus was just common to me. I saw Him only as my ticket to heaven, and not the One that I needed every moment.

You may think it's wrong for me to even think these thoughts, but this is one area that I don't want to mess up in parenting. Matthew 19:14 has really helped with my nervous feelings. It says, " But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Just like Brandon had simple faith in Jesus, I have to have simple faith in Him too.