Ever notice that life is filled with moments? Perhaps it is even merely a collection of moments, strung together, that comprise a life meaningful & purposeful. Sunday I had a moment, while at church, during the worship portion of our service. I was holding this….
singing this…..
and God showed up. I was suddenly filled with the realization of the greatness of our God. How He truly is able to save. I was in fact, holding in my arms, at that very moment, a living example of how mighty He is & how able our God is to do the impossible. I so desired to throw both arms up in the air in adoration & appreciation for our God but that would have meant dropping the work of His hands 🙂 During that song, I prayed over Jocelyn, while singing, that our God would indeed save her & that she would come to know Him & pursue Him from a young age.
At that moment, little did I know that our pastor would preach on the importance of leaving a legacy. Anyone who knows me, knows that I truly believe that my life would be lived in vain if my children (and now my grandchildren) did not know God. My desire is to stand one day before His throne with all my descendants. All. Not one missing.
Pastor stated in his message that kids check out between the ages of high school & college (17-23). They go their own way, making foolish choices. This is what most have come to expect to occur during these years. We seem to regard this as “normal”, bringing them “life experience”.
I am grateful that our God is merciful & restores the prodigal. I truly am. But I have not been able to stop thinking of this – what if, what if, WHAT IF we parents began to pray & ask God to keep our kids from walking away from Him? What if we were to begin praying that our kids would not only come to know Him at a young age but pursued Him FULL OUT all of their days?
I never desired that the lives of my children be scarred with remorse, regret, shame & humiliation, addictions. That was never the “life experience” I wanted for them. I wanted them to have the life experience of the fullness of God, of His blessings, of His joy. And God somehow, in spite of our parenting mistakes, answered that very prayer.
Can we even imagine the power of God that could be unleashed by a generation that pursued Him & lived for Him, solely sold out for Him? Oh that we as parents & grandparent would begin praying over our kids & believing God for MORE than years of their lives spent vainly in foolishness.
Yes, our God saves!
“Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matthew 22: 37-38 NIV).
