welcome home

We are back from our trip.  I hope to write about that later, -perhaps you didn't even know we went! Yes, we went to California for some meetings that Peter needed to go to, and I got to go along without the kids. At first we thought we might take Ella, however, we've gotten reports that she couldn't have been any better. Many prayers were answered this week and I am so thankful for that.

However, I wanted to write because I wanted to remember this moment.  While we were on our way home from grandma and grandpas, the girls were having a discussion in the back of the car. I was having fun listening to them because they seemed to be getting along so well and Ella was happily responding to my baby talk to her :)  This was their discussion:

Maddy: .....I keep calling it stomach aches!  Its supposed to be stomach, not stomach ache!!!!!
Kate:  Yeah Maddy, just stomach. Like before you said Jesus was in your stomach ache!
*giggling*

Maddy: Yeah, he's not in my stomach ache!
Kate:  Jesus is only in your heart,  like he is in my heart. Right mom? He's still there, right?
Me: Of course Kate. He will always be there.

Maddy: But he is not in my heart?
Me: Well, Kate asked Him to be in her heart, and now He is. So someday when you want Him to be in your heart, you've got to ask Him.
Maddy: I want Him to be!!

Me: Well, when you are ready some day to pray, then you can pray for Jesus to be in your heart.
Maddy: I want to pray right now! ok?  Dear Jesus, I pray that you can come into my heart. Amen.

Maddy: Did Jesus jump into my heart???? Mom, you should pray too!

A few giggles were exchanged along with some beaming smiles and I prayed...all four of us girls in the car, in our garage, I prayed that Maddy's heart would be filled with the Spirit, and that she would grow to love the Lord, and to have a serving heart.

We are called to have faith like children.  How special it was that Maddy and Kate got to make the decision themselves to want Jesus into their hearts. I'm praying that I can help teach them what it means to have Jesus in their hearts, and that now Maddy can experience God in a new way, a new understanding, and that all our girls will have a committed relationship with Him.