Faith like a child

Oh to have faith like a child!  Why is it that when we  start to grow up, even though we still have our faith, it doesn't seem to come as easy to share it?  

For me, I know I can sit down and share it with you ~ like this.  If you were in front of me, I would be able to share it but I would be more nervous about doing so.  I think it's the "rejection" issue that comes into play.  I think we are all afraid of being rejected by others and if we put ourselves out there and share our faith and witness to others ~ we could end up being rejected.

I look at Emily and her faith and love for going to church.  This is her first year in Awana and LOVES it.  I cant stress that enough!  I didnt know exactly what Awana really entailed until she was part of it.  For those of you who dont know, she learns Bible versus and says them each week.  She earns "wings" and beads when she has accomplished different things.  Last week she was able to say 10 versus ~ a few were review but the rest were new ones.  Last night she said the Old Testament books of the Bible, got her next Awana book and said about 3-4 versus out of there!  This being her very first year in it, I am just so proud of her!  If she finishes this book by the end of the Awana year, she will have finished 3 books!  That is ALOT of versus!  She amazes me.

So, she loves going to church.  She is always asking people to come to church, go to Awana with her...she just loves it!  You can see how let down she is when a friend cant come.  Last night though, she was so excited because a little boy from her class wanted to go with her.  It didnt hurt things that they were having an ice cream social!  Talk about twisting a kids arm to go to church!  Emily was thrilled and when she got home she was beaming with excitement!  She came in the door and was thrilled that her friend had so much fun and wants to go back next week, she was thrilled he was able to meet her Papa at church and just to have a friend to go to church with her.  She was also so excited about how much he enjoyed the story they heard ~ where a dad and teacher were saved!  Its amazing to me how young she is but just wants people to be in church and  to hear about Jesus! 

Lately (ok, for about two weeks now), Benjamin goes around the house singing "Jesus loves me"!  It is the sweetest thing,  however, its ALL DAY every day!  He does twist it up a notch and tries to put a new song in there.  Today though, I started in singing a Chris Tomlin song "I will follow".  I simply said the words "where you stay, i'll stay" and then Ben chimed in singing "where you go, i'll go".  i then said "I will" and he finished it by saying "follow you".  I was amazed that 1. he knew the words but 2. at how much what we listen to on the radio our kids really pay attention too!  That is the only way he hears the song and it touched my heart!  After we took Emily to school today, that song just happened to come on and I was nearly in tears listening and watching my 3 year sing such a powerful song of worship to our Lord!