I just have to share something that happened last week.  It was very heart-warming and encouraging for a momma!

Austin (6 yo) walked in my office tonight and announced that Savannah (8 yo) had a problem “they” needed help with. Savannah’s face looked very troubled, and I confess that my immediate thought was “Oh no . . . what has she done?” To my surprise, Savannah and Austin wanted advice on how to encourage some friends to stop being unkind to one of her classmates. She told me of her concern of how this newer classmate feels different, since he started mid-year and is not really at the same level as the other students, and that at school that day the boys were not being very nice to him. Austin, with a very serious face said, “Mommy, I don’t know how to help Savannah. What should we do?” Wow!!! How blessed I am with these precious children God has given me!!! I was struck by Savannah’s deep concern for this new student AND by the way her little brother wanted to help her carry her burden. What a beautiful picture of how we are to love others! What a great and humbling privilege and responsibility it is that God has entrusted Eric and me to be His vessels to shepherd them! Ah, but the great news is that He has given us what we need in His Word to do just that!

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Daddy was at a meeting, so the three of us went through some various scenarios of how Savannah might ask her friends why they were being unkind and to encourage them to honor God and to treat others as they would want to be treated, as Matthew 7:12 tells us we should do. She was still troubled thinking about all the obstacles to approaching them at school. She thought of writing them all letters, so she could be discreet, but she just wasn’t sure. I reminded her that before she does anything, she should pray, and then Austin chimed in that he would ask his class to pray for her, too (which I encouraged, but it also led to a separate discussion of being careful in how to ask for prayer without it leading to gossip . . . sorry, tangent). I then showed them that James 1:5 says that when we lack wisdom, we should ask God for it, and He will give it freely. As I saw Savannah read this verse, a smile spread across her face. She immediately felt better, knowing that was straight from God’s Word. She knew she could trust God’s Word. She no longer felt troubled . . . now she just needed to trust that God would help her to act wisely in the situation. How cool is that!!!

So, the three of us prayed for her to have wisdom of how to encourage her friends, and I can’t wait to see how God is going to answer the prayers of a little girl and boy, who want to love others as God has called them to do. What a testimony to God’s Word being a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. (Psalm 119:105) May my children’s love for others and trust in God and His Word spur me on towards love and good deeds! (Hebrews 10:24-25)