Just Like Jesus

Today I remembered something that happened a year or so ago when my youngest daughter couldn't sleep and it warmed my heart.  She'd been having a difficult time sleeping since her friend's house had burned down and she'd been having nightmares.  It was so sad and it's hard to see your kids begin to realize how mean and unkind the world can be at times.  I remember those days when I was a kid - somehow snuggling next to mom made it all better.

As she was crying and standing there at my bed, she said "Mommy, you don't understand.  I can't stand it when you aren't right there with me!  You make me feel so safe!  I need you with me all the time!"  I gave her a big hug and said, "I'm so glad you love me so much - but just remember that Jesus is the only One you should ever feel that strongly about.  He can be with you even when I can't!"  She hugged me tighter and said "Mommy, you're JUST like Jesus!"

Oh, my kids know just what to say to make my heart melt.  I can barely type this as I sit here and remember how unworthy and how incapable I felt at that moment.  Who can live up to that comparison?  But to kids, that's how it seems.  She can see I love Jesus and that I spend time with Him, and even though I know she loves me because I'm her mom, I think she also likes to be around me because of Who I hang around with.  She can see the difference He makes in my life.  And she likes it!

I held her sweet face in my hands, looked her in the eye and asked her, "Peyton, do you believe in Jesus?  Is He inside your heart?"  She answered through tears, "Yes, Mommy."  Then I said, "Well, then, the same Jesus that is in me is also in you.  He will never, never leave you.  And that's a promise." We read through the Twenty-Third Psalm once more, prayed together and then she peacefully drifted off to sleep.

Of all the things I do, I hope I will be able to point my children to Jesus.  I honestly cannot think of anything more rewarding and important than seeing my children grow up loving Him.  And it all starts with them seeing me love Him first.

Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it."