“Aah-mahn.”
That’s Hudson’s response when I ask him if he wants to pray. Whenever our kids make little steps that might to be toward Jesus, it’s pretty exciting. But they also sometimes seem few and far between.
Both our girls shout “Mediator!” when we ask what they want to listen to in the car (they really like Ghost Ship). But our oldest, when she was having a hard time on her first day of school, didn’t want to hear any encouragement from Scripture, nor did she want us to pray with her. Hannah, our middle girl, decided she wanted to pray tonight at dinner (which was super-cute). She also plays with her My Little Ponies games that usually end, “And we’ll KILL her with the helements of harmony!”
(And yes, she really does pronounce elements with a hard-h.)
Reading Michael Kelley’s new book, Boring: Finding an Extraordinary God in an Ordinary Life, gave me a really great piece of encouragement:
There are spiritual moments with your children that are paper thin, and they don’t seem to happen that often. It’s those times when you really sense they are understanding the nature of sin and our great need for forgiveness, and then they’re thinking about Pokémon again. These moments are extraordinarily thin, but they are there to be seized upon if we are ready. The thing is, though, those moments don’t just pop out of nowhere. They are, in a sense, manufactured through a commitment to the daily routine. They are hard fought and won through getting up early to make sure breakfast is on the table so you’re not rushing around. They are created through showing up around that table day in and day out. They are born from the tedious acts of doing the same thing, day after day after day. (130)
The hard work of discipling our children isn’t going to pay off in the short-term. We’ve probably got more days in front of us breaking up fights, dealing with tantrums, and cleaning boogers off the wall than we do anything else. But the infrequent glimpses into what God (possibly) is doing in their hearts makes the “tedious acts of doing the same thing, day after day after day” more than worth it.
