Philippians 1:6

"being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."

I am so thankful for this verse. So short. So simple.

So full of His promise.

No matter the age-two, 12, 37, 56, 95...you accept Jesus, He has started a good work in you and He is going to carry out that good work.

I was 14 when I accepted Jesus as my Savior. I was on a school bus with a bunch of other kids my age that I had just recently met. A youth group. Soon to be my favorite group of people for the next fours and then some.

We were on our way home from David's Hangar, a place for youth. I don't remember what we did there, I only remember the trip home.

I know that in those few short weeks since I'd started going to church, I felt a peace I had never known before. And that evening I decided that maybe, just maybe it was from this church stuff. So, sitting there, in a seat by myself (i think David Pillers was behind me and Linds across from me) I quietly prayed that Jesus would save me.

And He did.

In the last 15 years I have not once worked for my salvation. I have done just the opposite so many times. I have failed Him, but He's never failed me. I spent a few years running. I did everything I could to forget the Jesus Who loved me. I avoided church, I spoke less with my Christian friends and made new friends. Friends that didn't know Jesus and if they did (like myself) they were running too.

I will spare you details (for now) but basically, Philippians 1:6 is how I see my life. He started a good work in me and though I tried my darndest to make Him love me less and let me go, He kept His promise.

And now the real reason for this post.

Monday evening we stopped in Post Falls for dinner at a rest area and to let the girls play for a bit.

By the time we left it was time to set up beds and get the girls bunked down for the night.

Sugar asked if we could read from her Bible.

She picks which book of the bible she wants to read from by the pictures. She's flipping through and sees Jesus carrying the Cross up a hill.

'Mama, I want to read this one.'

She's looking at the picture. A very simple picture. A Man, a cross and a crown of thorns. There's no blood, no sweat, no crowds yelling, spitting or mocking.

But the picture touches her heart.

Pointing to the crown of thorns, she asks, 'Does that hurt Him? Does that hurt Jesus?'

I tell her yes, it hurts Him very bad and makes Him bleed.

'Is that cross heavy for Him?'

I am amazed at what she thinks about.

'Yes, that cross is heavy.'

'Well then, maybe Daddy can carry it for him!'

Oh, sweet girl.

We spend the next few minutes talking about why Jesus died. To save us from our sins, He died so we could go to Heaven and live with Him forever.

'Yeah! Forever!' she says so excitedly.

She tells me, 'God is in our hearts, right Mama?'

'Well, after we ask Him into our hearts, yes.'

'Okay, I will! I want to!'

And so, in the sleeper of a 1997 Peterbilt, I prayed with my sweet almost four year old and she asked Jesus into her heart.

'Can I tell Daddy?' and she jumps up and tells Josh how Jesus died on a cross but He's alive and in our hearts.

And I think my heart has never been more full.

She's not yet four. She has a whole lotta life waiting for her. Temptations of this world. Sometimes it's so easy to turn your back on the Truth. But I cling to not only Philippians 1:6 but Proverbs 22:6 as well.

'Train up a child in the way he (or she) should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.'

We're raising her to know Jesus. But there will come a day when she'll need to find a faith outside of ours. A faith in Jesus all her own.

And Monday night was just her beginning.



-- Post From My iPhone