Blessing 43: Salvation of a Child

Katie has been asking questions about being saved and what it means to accept Jesus into your heart. When questions come up we would explain and shortly after I would just pray that the Lord continue to guide her heart to eventually know when it would be time for her to accept Him as her savior.

Last night as I was putting Katie to be she was telling me about how people in the Old Testament would sacrifice animals to God. I asked her if she new what that meant and she said they would kill the animal for God. I asked her if she knew why...she said no, so I explained to her that it was what they had to do to seek forgiveness from God for their sins. Side note (what is funny about this conversation is that Chris and I were talking about this just the other day). Anyway, I went on to explain to her that we no longer do that because Jesus was that sacrifice for us. He died on the cross and the blood he shed was his was of covering our sins so that all we have to is just ask for forgiveness and believe in Jesus and we will be saved.

That was pretty much the end of the conversation....she looked as if she was thinking and mulling it over. She laid down and she said her prayers and I prayed for her as well. Maybe about 5 minutes later she came into my room with tears coming down her cheeks and she said she just did something. I asked what she did and she said, "I just asked Jesus to come into my heart". I then had tears coming down my checks. I asked her, I asked her why she is crying...she said I don't know, I just felt like it was time to ask him and I just prayed he would forgive me of my sins and live in my heart. I gave her a big hug and told her that she just made the best and most important decision of her entire life. We went down stairs and told daddy right away...shortly after a phone call to Nana and Papaw was made. She was so excited and thrilled. She kept saying....I am a Christian now. :)

I can tell you that I haven't had so much joy in my heart for her except for the day she was born. It honestly felt like the same emotions I had when I saw her for the very first time....I guess in a way it was seeing her for the very first time again...this time it was just in her new life as a Christian.

Today...I am beyond blessed and thankful that I love and serve a savior who not only hears my prayers of wanting my children to accept him a their Savior but who gently guides them to that decision. I love that when Katie felt Jesus calling and tugging at her heart that she followed His lead and opened that door.

Deuteronomy 6:6-8
⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

Proverbs 22:6
Start children off on the way they should go,

and even when they are old they will not turn from it

Blessing 42: He is Risen

Happy Easter! Today I am thankful, grateful, humbled and blessed to know that my Savior is alive and sitting at the right hand of our father. Jesus paid the ultimate price for us, He carried all our past, present and future sins away. He did all of this so that we could have a way back to our father. Without his sacrifice we would all perish. The bible says the wages for sin is death, but if we believe in Jesus and know he is the one and only son of God then we will not perish but have eternal life. Don't know about you but I am thankful to know that we my time is done here on earth, I will not perish. I will be with my savior forever. The bible also says that each of us have it in us to seek Jesus...we are all seeking Him whether we acknowledge it or not. We all are looking for something to save us. Some just think they can do it on there own. The bible specifically says we cannot, we have to give our life to Jesus in order to be saved. I hope today that if you have not given your life to Him, that you will seek to know Jesus. Let him fill your void, let Him be you hope, your future, your friend. The one who can get you through anything. Life is so much sweeter when you choose to let Him lead your life.

I pray you have had a blessed Easter and took time to acknowledge and celebrate what happened on this day. He is alive and well, just like He said he would be.

There is beauty in the cross by Jonny Diaz, click here

Blessing 41: From There to Here

I know I have been bad about keeping up with my thankful post...I just hit another bloggers lull. Not that I didn't have things to write about, but just not taking the time to write them. But this one got me wanting to blog again. I have a few others to post and might be out of order...so bare with me.

The other day Chris and I were taking a trip down memory lane. About where we started out when we got married and where we are now. We talked about the rented "house" on Copeland street in Knoxville. I put house in parenthesis because this house should have been condemned. It was falling apart and every morning I was always greeting by those HORRIBLE spider crickets. If you have never seen ones of these be thankful for that. They are big in size and jump everywhere. It gives me the willies to think about them. This house was what we could afford at the time and when we moved in it wasn't in the best shape but it went down hill quickly. So we soon realized we needed to move and ventured out to buying our first home. I remember how beyond happy I was to be getting a brand new home. No bugs greeting me in the morning! Life was great!. From here on out, with ALL of our moves God has always provided us with the ability to buy a home, one that would give security and safety to our family.

As Chris and were on this trip down memory lane I realized just how blessed we are. There are some kids that live in house like the first one we lived in. I couldn't imagine having our girls live there but if it meant they had a roof over them and it was what we could afford then we would. By no means do I think we are too good to live in that situation....it just truly humbles me to think of where we started off at and where we are now and how God has so faithfully provided for us. It makes me appreciate the comforts that I have, the beautiful home I have, my girls can sleep peacefully each night in security and safety.

Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words! (2 Corinthians 9:15 NLT)