Me, my son, a flag pole, a public school, amen

A few weeks ago I was explaining to my 8-year-old son about the national event that Christian teenagers participate in every year, See You At The Pole.  His excitement continued to grow as I told him how students gathered together, whether a few or a crowd, to pray for our nation, their schools, reaching their friends with the Gospel of Christ, their teachers, etc. 

His response, “Daddy, we HAVE to do that!”

So this past Wednesday my son and I headed to school 30 minutes early so we could pray at 7am.  I was hopeful that there might be others, but my son goes to a K-8 school so I wasn’t sure if any middle school kids might be there.  As it was, my son Christian and I were the only two there and it didn’t bother him a bit.  We prayed together for his school and that he would have the opportunity to share the Gospel with his friends.  We also asked God to provide him with other Christians at his school who would support him in his quest to reach his campus for Christ.  As we said “Amen!” a friend from our church who is a teacher there showed up and was saddened that she missed our gathering.

That day when I got home Christian shared with me that the teacher saw him later that day in school and took a moment to pray with him in the copy room in the school office.  As a dad, I thought that was totally cool.  Thank You God for providing my son a support system at his school.  May you continue to bless him with boldness and a zeal for the Gospel of your Son Jesus Christ!  Would you grant him success over the next 5 years to reach his campus with Your Good News!

Amen.

Wii joined the “cult”

You read that correctly.  With pressure from my wife, of all people, we bit the bullet and purchased a Wii this weekend and have joined the gaming cult that is taking the world by storm.  The decision was tough as I debated the new PS3 or even the Xbox 360, but in the end the interactive game console won out.

Why the Wii? I almost didn’t go this route simply due to the fact that the Wii doesn’t play DVD’s.  Neva, my wife, and I have had several conversations about turning the TV off in the evenings and spending time together as a family.  The goal was to unplug from mindless TV watching and do something interactive and fun as a family on a regular basis.  The plan is once homework and dinner are done we head down to the basement and have a little friendly family competition on Wii Sports and Wii Play.  Let’s not forget Guitar Hero!

So we broke it in over Labor Day weekend and had a blast.  Christian and I had a blast laughing at Neva (who is a worship leader at our church and well versed in singing, guitar, and piano) as she couldn’t figure out the timing of the guitar on Guitar Hero and was the cause for several failed songs.  Christian also edged her out in bowling by 2 points but he couldn’t stand the likes of me.  Although, he owned both of us at Tennis. 

A great weekend with great memories and promises of many more family nights to come!  I want to be careful to not over-spiritualize buying a video game unit, but I don’t want  to under-estimate the value of spending quality time as a family laughing and playing together either.

My son the evangelist

I sometimes look for opportunities to share my faith.  It’s something I know I should do, and I enjoy having those conversations and presenting the Gospel, but I certainly don’t do it as often as I should.  I am frequently convicted working at Dare 2 Share just by the nature of what we do.  That conviction amps up most weeks on Wednesday when we have staff chapel and Greg challenges us to share our faith as we have opportunity.  All of those things considered, I am convicted the most by my 8-year-old son Christian when it comes to sharing my faith.

Christian started the 3rd grade last Wednesday at Aurora Quest Academy.  It is his first year not going to a Christian school (3 years of preschool at our church in Virginia and K-2 at Faith Christian Academy).  When he got accepted to Aurora Quest we explained to him some of the differences he might encounter at a public school.  Without hesitation he told my wife and, “It may not be a Christian school now, but when I’m done with it it will be!”  WOW!  How much pride as a father did I feel at that moment? 

So last Thursday, his second day of school, Christian came home and told us all about his day.  He shared that the class was playing a game and several of his new friends were getting upset that they were not winning.  He explained to them that they shouldn’t be ashamed of losing, everything is fine, because we are all winners!  The teacher chimed in and corrected Christian explaining that when they play games, there will be winners and losers.  “But we’re all winners in God’s eyes!” he proclaimed to his class.  The teacher gently informed Christian that they were not talking about God, but about the board game.  He quickly complied and finished playing the game.  As he explained to us what happened though, this is what he said, “Mom and dad, I knew I was right.  I was talking about God.  I didn’t want to argue with my teacher though, but we are all winners in God’s eyes!”

My son made me so proud again.  Not only did he make the preliminary statement that he was going to share Jesus with his school, but on the second day of classes he was already making bold statements about God.  I am also proud of him for respecting his teacher and not arguing with her.  It showed the relational side of his evangelistic effort.  His relentless is evident in the fact that he would make a public statement like that to his whole class and that he plans on looking for more opportunities to do the same.  While he complied with his teacher out of respect, it has not quenched his zealousness of the Gospel!

Please continue to pray for my little 8-year-old evangelist as he Shreds the Gnar on his campus!

My Bible’s wrong daddy!

Several weeks ago I was driving my son to school.  His class was participating in a reading contest (which they incidentally won) so he was using our 30 minute commute time to get ahead in the competition.  As he was thumbing through the pages of his Bible he found his favorite story, the Christmas story, and began to read.

After almost an entirely silent trip my son erupts in the backseat, “My Bible’s wrong daddy!”

I take a minute to catch my breath, slow my heart rate down after being scared to death by his outburst, and ask him what he meant.

“My Bible is wrong daddy.  It has a different version of the Christmas story that’s not right.”

Having no context for what he was saying, I simply responded, “Go ahead and read to me what is wrong in your Bible.”

He began to read what he thought was written in Matthew 1:24.  “When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary AND his wife…Daddy that’s wrong.  Mary was Joseph’ss wife.  He wasn’t dating Mary and have a different wife.”

I burst out loud at my sons mis-read and pondered if this is how Mormon’s may have misinterpretted polygomy from the Bible, but I digress.

After having him read it  a second time, he caught his mistake and his soul was put to ease.  The Bible wasn’t wrong after all.   

But the story isn’t over just yet.  He went on to read the next verse in the story: “But he did not have… s-e-x-u-a-l (insert his pause and my prayers here) relations with her until her son was born.  Hmmmmm.” 

“Oh please God, not yet.  The boy’s only 8,” went my prayer.

“Thanks for the help dad.  Now it makes sense.”

Whew!  Dodged a bullet with that one.  So whether it was my son’s mis-read, how close I came to having the sex talk with my son, or both, I hope that this has made you smile.

The GOSPEL Hand

Check out my son Christian and his cousins Conner and Emma.  Sharing the GOSPEL is really this easy!

done