The You Brighten My Day post was wildly popular. We already had 308 comments when I turned them off! They were all incredibly entertaining. Thank you so much for participating! They had me “laughing at the days to come.” (See Prov. 31:25b). Mom and I sent several emails back and forth saying, “Did you see this one?”
Some were convicting.
When my almost 30-year-old daughter was around 5 years old, I was driving home with her sitting next to me. By mistake, I beeped the horn. She turned and looked at me and I said, “I did that by mistake”. She answered back, “I know that…because you didn’t say jerk afterwords”! How powerful our words can be to our little ones! Out of the mouth of my babe spoke God’s truth!
Some made me laugh so hard I literally cried.
My daughter loves to sing…and loudly! The problem is that she doesn’t always get the words right. I recall one particular Sunday morning during praise and worship time we were singing “He is Exalted”. Sarah was 3 at the time, so everyone in front of us was listening to her, as most people do when young children are not afraid to “perform”. She was listening closely for the right time to come in, and when that time came she belted out “He is a Sausage, the King is a Sausage…” Oh yeah, I wanted to crawl right under the pew! We all had a good laugh that morning!
My daughter, who was five at the time, came storming out of her room one morning while I was watching you on Life Today. She announced, “Beth Moore woke me up.” I looked at her, a little taken back because the TV wasn’t that loud and I don’t know how she heard it in her bedroom. I asked her how Beth Moore woke her up. She said, “I know that voice, mommy. I can see her hair in my sleep. I know Beth Moore.” OK, after I finally stopped laughing I asked her, “Do you want to sit down and watch her with me.” She replied, “Yes, I like her.”
(“I can see her hair in my sleep”? That has to be the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.)
My boys are as big as me now, but when my youngest was about 4, we were at a beach on Lake Michigan for the day. The facilities were quite stinky and dirty, so when our son said he had to “tinkle”, we informed him to “just go in the water”. He looked at us, shocked and said “really?”. We assured him that the fish go there and at this beach he could too. You can imagine us hiding our faces as he walked into the water, about knee deep, pulled his trunks all the way down and sprayed the incoming waves!
Others had me crying in a different way.
My oldest son is autistic. He is 12 years old and is for the most part non verbal. Although he loves to have the bible read to him and LOVES to watch Bible man movies. I had a tough day (ministry issues and dealing with chronic Lyme’s disease). I had my head down on my desk and was crying quietly. I prayed and said, ” Lord, please speak to me today. Give me some hope.” My son (with autism), within minutes came over and tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up at him and he sat down right in front of me (eye to eye – if you know much about autism, eye contact is nearly miraculous).
My son did not speak to me. But he sat there, looked at my weepy eyes and sang “Jesus loves me” from start to finish. I have never had such a spiritual, tangible moment with my Lord like that.
He sent my child, that could not speak, to sing and remind me, “Jesus does love me…THIS I KNOW!” I can not even think of that story without crying. He may not know the alphabet, or how to write his own name, and he may be in diapers at 12 years old, BUT my son knows the most important of all things – “Jesus loves me…” And he ministered to his mommy that day with those words.
At this point, you may need to wipe your eyes to see them, but while we’re back on the subject of children I’ll share a couple of pictures.
This is Jenny W.’s daughter deep in the Word.
And this is my boy in his Easter outfit.
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