O's New Life

From the moment our children are born, Drew and I began praying about our children's salvation. We seek day after day ways to grow them, and point them in direction of the God who created them, loves them, and sent His son to bear our sin on the cross and die. The daily question is, "are we doing enough? Are we doing it right? How will we know when they become authentic followers of Jesus Christ?

One thing we've always prayed is that it would be confirmed that they would not become Christians because of any pressure from us. (As if that could be an authentic conversion!) We wanted to know that God and God alone is pursuing each of their hearts to draw them unto himself.

About a month ago, our daughter O did just that. One night, she just said, "I"m ready momma. I'm ready to have Jesus in my heart." I asked her what that meant, and after telling me what she thought it was, I felt like she understood what it meant. And she said, "I just feel like He wants me to follow Him, that He wants to be in my heart. I believe that I need Him. " She told me she wanted to pray all by herself, without my help. At first, she started going through the ABC's of salvation. I stopped her in the middle of her prayer and asked her, "didn't you just tell me that you felt like Jesus needed to be in your heart? That He wanted to be there? Talk to him about how you feel about giving him your heart, your life." She proceeded to pray one of the most sacred, precious prayers I've ever heard in my life. She broke down into tears and poured her heart out to God, crying for Him to come into her life, and that she wanted to follow Him "forever," as she put it. God's presence was all around us as she prayed that prayer, and 3 or 4 weeks later, she followed her decision in baptism. We were blessed that Drew was able to baptize her. It was an enormous privilege for him. We are overjoyed with the blessing of her salvation, and give God glory and honor for it!