Faith Lessons

I learn things from my kids all the time, but last night Sadie taught me a major lesson. My sweet, little, 5-year old daughter was chosen to be the star student this week in her kindergarten class. (I am proud as a peacock!) One of the privileges of the being the star student is that you get to bring in your favorite book and the teacher reads it to the whole class. Sadie has about a million favorite books, so I was curious to see what she would pick. Last night when it came time to pick her book, she chose one called The Parable of the Lily. It is a story about a little girl whose grandfather gives her a crate of dirt with a bulb in it as a gift. The girl is less than excited about a box of dirt and throws the bulb out in the yard out of frustration. She forgets all about it and on Easter morning she is shocked to find that the ugly old bulb has bloomed into a beautiful Easter lily. Each page has scriptures relating to the story and how Jesus transforms our lives into something beautiful.

Sadie goes to a public school and I just knew that taking this book was not going to fly. So I told her that she couldn't take it and would need to choose a different book. She asked why and I told her that I was afraid if her teacher read it to the class that her teacher might get in trouble. Sadie just didn't get it. How in the world would I explain to my innocent child that Christ just isn't allowed in schools? I searched for words. How can I explain something that just doesn't make sense to me either. Finally, I told her that her teacher couldn't read that book to the class because not everyone believed in Jesus. And do you know what my awesome daughter said? She said, "But mom, if they don't believe in Jesus, it's my job to tell them he's real!" She is absolutely right! That is our job! And there I was trying to sabotage her mission field. I was ashamed of myself. In the end, I let her take the book to school in addition to another of her favorites. We got to have a great talk about telling our friends about Jesus. "After all" she says, "If they don't believe in Jesus, who do they think made all the Earth?"

I am so proud of her! I love that she is uninhibited in her faith and rock solid in her beliefs. I could definitely stand to take a lesson from my daughter about what it means to go and tell the nations and to be unashamed of the gospel! Thanks Sadie for the reminder! Oh, how I love that girl!



P.S. Our friends, Jamey and Stori Sullivan made it safely to Africa this morning and now have their baby boys in their arms! I got to see pictures of them and Stori is all smiles!