"I Want To See Jesus"

"I want to see Jesus."

Those are perhaps the sweetest words I've ever heard my two-year old utter. That's right; they came straight from the mouth of my baby. Now, before you go thinking he's some spiritual toddler giant, you should know that we were listening to a song from our "120 Bible Songs for Kids" album on my iPhone and he was asking to see the album cover - a picture of Jesus with children all around Him and in His lap. The way he worded that request though…"I want to see Jesus," made my heart smile. I said a little prayer that that would always be the desire of his heart.

My greatest prayer for my children is not that they would be well-behaved or healthy or safe or successful or happy. Of course, I want all of those things for them and more; but most of all, I want them to "want to see Jesus"! I want them to hunger and thirst for Him. I want them to love His word and delight in serving Him. I know, as I mentioned in my post entitled "Praying for My Boys," that I cannot make that happen. Only God can change their hearts. However, there are things I can do as a mother to help steer them in the right direction.

• I can show them what it looks like to love the Lord, to worship Him, to seek Him, and to serve Him with joy. I am far from perfect, and my children will grow up knowing that better than anyone else! My goal, though, is that they would always know that I love the Lord with all my heart. I mess up, and I seek and accept forgiveness. I live my life in an attitude of worship - praising Him and thanking Him and serving Him when I'm happy or sad, stressed or relaxed, busy or bored, when things are going my way and when they aren't. My children will see me at my best and at my worst, and I pray my love for Christ will shine through both!
• I can talk to them about God. This sounds so easy…so why does it seem so difficult to actually do it? I have found that, in my life, the most likely way for this to happen is for me to actually plan it. Some mornings, I actually think through my day and decide when I am going to talk to my children about God. I may decide to talk about how God made Landon when I'm bathing him at night. I may talk about how God loves us even when we mess up after I get him out of time out. I may tell Carson how precious he is to God as I'm rocking him at nap time. We talk about how God made the animals when we're playing with Landon's Fisher Price Little People farm. I actually plan these interactions based on events that I am sure are going to happen in our day. The more I do this, the more often it begins to happen spontaneously. It's like I just get used to talking about it, and it becomes easier and more natural. Then, I don't have to plan it anymore; it just happens.
• I can play Christian music. In the car, I pretty much only listen to Christian music. (Occasionally, I'll flip the station, but I'm almost always reminded of why I don't want my child hearing that music. Would I really want him singing those lyrics?) When we're playing and in the mood for play tunes, I will turn on our "120 Bible Songs for Kids." Sometimes, Landon will ask to hear some other song like "If You're Happy and You Know It" or "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." In that case, we listen to those. I do not force it because I do not want it to be something negative.
• I can read the Bible to my children. Every morning at breakfast, we read one Bible story from our children's Bible. Some days, Landon listens intently and responds to the story, pointing out something in the picture or commenting on something we read. Other times, he talks non-stop as we are trying to read the story or asks to see Adam and Eve and the "Bad Snake" seven times as we're reading about Samson. When that happens, we try to keep the mood light and happy by pausing our story, smiling, responding to him before going back to reading. Then, as soon as we finish that day's story, we'll go back and see Adam and Eve and the Bad Snake.
• I can help them memorize scripture. I know for some of you this may sound tedious or unlikely since you, yourself, do not memorize scripture. However, it is soooooo much easier than I ever would have imagined! I bought a little board book from Barnes and Noble that has A-Z Bible verses - a short verse for each letter of the alphabet. Every morning, after our Bible story, we would read one verse, the same one for the entire week. Then, the next week, we would read that verse and a new verse. Landon's memory is better than mine! He knows 9 Bible verses, and he's only TWO years old! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE hearing him recite the verses; and he genuinely enjoys it. He asks to read his Bible stories and his "nother one Bible 'tories" (what he calls his Bible verses). I never intended to ask him to recite the verses, I just wanted him to hear them everyday. However, one day, I started reading the verse for that day, and he just recited it along with me. Now, we take turns…on each 2-page spread, I let him chose which verse he wants to say and which verse he wants me to say. Again, keep it fun and light-hearted…no pressure…kids don't like pressure!
• I can use scriptures in everyday situations. I use scriptures when I'm correcting/disciplining my children. ("Keep your lips from evil and your tongue from telling lies." - when he tells me that he does not have a poopy diaper even though I know he does.) I use them to encourage Landon when he does something well. ("God loves a cheerful giver," - when he shares his apples with Dad.) I use them to teach Landon to acknowledge God's handiwork or His presence. ("God created the heavens and the earth." - when we are playing outside and see the trees, grass, clouds, etc. "Fear not for I am with thee."- when we're going to the doctor.
• I can take my children to church - even when it's not convenient. Last Sunday, both boys slept in (hallelujah!) until 8:00. We do not set alarms in our house because we usually do not need to; so since they slept in, so did we. Well, we have to leave our house at 8:30 to get to church on time. It would have been so easy to say, "Let's just skip this week." Instead, we kicked it into high gear!!! Somehow, we got all four of us dressed (Carson breastfed) and read to go by 8:35! I had to do my make up in the car, but we made it!
• I can pray for them and with them. Again, we started off by scheduling this. We pray with our boys before every meal, before every nap, before bed, and after any punishment such as time out or spankings. I pray for my boys every night before I go to bed and every morning when I wake up. After doing this for a few weeks, I found myself praying simple one-liners for my boys at random times throughout the day. Then, I found myself praying simple one-liners with my boys (i.e. on our way to church - "Thank you, God, that we can go to church." or when Landon wakes up from a nap unhappy - "Help Landon to feel better and have Your joy.")
• I can make all of the above FUN!
  • I do not force any of it! We do read our Bible stories everyday, but it is not a chore. It's fun! If Landon is not into it, we don't make a big deal out of it. We read it and move on. Then, later we look for ways to bring it back up in conversation.
  • Sometimes, I have to get creative. The other day, we were reading our Bible story at snack time because we did not get to at breakfast. We were eating bananas and graham crackers as I read the story of Joshua and the battle of Jericho. After reading it, I excitedly told Landon that there was a song about that story. I played it for him on my iPod (again from our "120 Bible Songs for Kids"). Then, God gave me a brilliant idea…we used the graham crackers to build walls around Landon's juice cup. Then, we used a single skinny graham cracker stick to be Joshua and made him march around the walls we had built. Then, after he marched around 7 times, we blew the trumpet/banana and shouted and knocked the walls over! Landon loved it! Several times since that day, he has said, "Duh duh duh!!! (trumpet sound) And the walls fall OVER!!!" He knows that Bible story well! I always say, "Yes! That's right! Joshua and the soldiers marched around Jericho; and when they blew their trumpets and shouted, God made the walls fall over!" (filling in the details so he might pick up on those as well one day), I was an early elementary education major so sometimes these ideas just come to me randomly, but that's not the case with you, here are a few off the top of my head: act out a story; have dolls or stuffed animals be characters in a story; go on a scavenger hunt around  your house for items mentioned in the story - toys animals for creation story, toy boat for story of the fishermen, etc; draw a scene from the story; for younger kids, just draw/doodle while Mom is reading the story; use household objects to make sound effects that go along with the story; clap every time you hear a certain word. There are tons of more ideas online, but maybe that got some ideas rolling in your brain.
  • We can use silly voices when saying our Bible verses: squeaky mouse voice, deep manly voice, whisper voice, loud voice, opera voice, cowboy voice, etc.
  • I can get excited and talk it up with my children! Your kids' attitudes toward something will often reflect your own!

I'll be honest, some days, it seems as though it's all for naught! Some days, it seems that they're not getting anything; so what's the point. Then, God will send me a little encouragement. Landon will say something like, "I wanna weed my Bi' 'towy" (I want to read my Bible story!), even though we've already read a Bible story that day. On those days, we may read two or three Bible stories. Some days, God gives us teachable moments - Frequently, while staring at the page of Adam and Eve (his new favorite story), Landon will say, "A-oo Eee sad" and I'll say, "That's right. Why are they sad?" He responds, "They had leave garden." Me: "That's right…because they did not obey God. Obeying God makes us happy, but if we do not obey, it makes us sad." The other day, Landon asked to listen to "De-zus nunic" (Jesus music). I turned on "Jesus Loves Me," and Landon sang along while we ate breakfast…sweet, sweet sound! When I told Landon today that I loved him and Daddy loved him but there was someone who loved him even more than we did, he responded, "De-zus!" …THAT'S WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT!

Ultimately, his heart is God's responsibility. I cannot change it. I cannot force my children to love God or serve Him. I can pray for it and I can try to steer them in the right direction. I can plant the seed and trust God to make it grow.