Tempted to Tell All

“Mama, when we were at the library the other day, I was tempted to tell someone about Jesus and how He was born to save us. Is that wrong?”

I couldn’t help but smile.

Funny question for a missionary kid to be asking…

After all, isn’t that what missionaries do? Isn’t that what we teach kids that missionaries do?

Missionaries go, into ALL the world for this reason: telling ALL who have never heard or who have never believed or who just need to be reminded – ALL about Jesus.

The message is first one of confrontation – the horribly bad news that ALL, are sinners and that as sinners, we are unable – in and of ourselves – to DO ANYTHING to remedy our sin problem. Which brings us to the second part of the bad news: the required punishment for any and every sin is death.

Grasping that part of the message is necessary; thankfully it doesn’t stop there or we would ALL be without hope.

The second half of the missionary message tells of reconciliation and restoration. It’s the hopeful part… the better part.

ALL men need someone to save them. So God sent ONE, His Son.

It is what we celebrate during this holy season.

Jesus came – born as a baby, but also born to die… for ALL men.

He willingly and sacrificially took the punishment for ALL sin so that ALL men could be reconciled to God. The Good News gets even better. Jesus didn’t stay dead. God brought Him out of the tomb, alive and conquering death. Because He lives, ALL men who believe this merciful message of grace and then trust Him have the hope of ALL eternity together with Him.

So I smiled when my little one asked her question. And I told her, “Of course it’s not wrong!”

She grinned and said that next time, she’d be kind by listening to God when He was tempting her to tell…and we went on with our day… and week…

God, however, wasn’t finished with me yet. He had an additional thought with which I need to wrestle so He kept bringing my mind back around to her question.

Particularly the phrase tempted to tell....

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Please join me over at Missionary Mom's Companion (I posted last weekend) to read the rest of this repost from Christmas time, last year...

Five Minute Friday ~ Reflect

Lots to reflect on this year...

So many changes... Moving... More goodbyes... New place... New school... New (to some of us) language... New pets... Six living at home instead of eight...

Although, I must say - not much has actually surprised me. This year has been hard where I expected it to be hard, exciting where I expected it to be exciting, edifying where I expected it to be edifying. Been nice to have a year where I've felt like God prepared me in advance and nothing really caught me off guard. (I certainly don't expect it to always be like that.)

But I'm thankful. I've needed an a year where expectations and realities pretty well lined up.

Well, except for this one thing.

Having my big ones off and far away has been a lot different than I expected. I miss them. Something awful. I think about them everyday, often throughout the day. I pray for them more than I ever dreamed possible to remember to pray for anyone. But I'm also loving this season.

We are learning to communicate in a new way, over distances, and to work through challenges with our kids - now as young adults. They have freedom to make decisions that we don't necessarily like or that we feel are unwise. They procrastinate... and have to figure out their own way out of any resulting problems. They learn to relate to other family members and their communities without any buffer of Daddy and Mama. They are adventurers and life explorers on a great adventure and I get a front row seat as they discover their futures and God's plans for their lives. From where I sit? Best show ever! It is exciting and fun and a privilege to play a much smaller than before part.

I love hearing about something taking place in my girl's life via one of her sisters and Snapchat. It is fun to see pictures on Facebook of  my big ones and the life they are living... even when I'm not a daily part of that life.

Yes, I miss them.

But I wouldn't change a thing.

This is as it should be, and I'm not going to bemoan the physical distance separating and exponentially limited time together. I've prayed almost all of their lives that these breathtaking (Yes! They do take my breath away on an almost daily basis for both good and bad reasons - I'm totally and 100% biased!) young people would be tools of God, used by Him to impact whatever "world" He gives them in which to live. I still pray that...

And then there's this. With the big two not such a physical presence in our daily lives, the next two have had opportunities to shine unfiltered. And it has been fun! I think that sometimes, and probably unintentionally, older siblings tend to shadow over their younger ones. When those older ones move on and into these different life stages, it gives us, as parents, an opportunity to see the next ones in line in a totally different light.

And I'm finding them hilarious, fascinating, challenging, sometimes annoying, always entertaining and just downright fun to be with.

As parents, we blink and they become.

But this parent doesn't have time to spend missing the past and or the desire to long for those wonderful years of "ago" and littles and all my "ducklings" under wing, in a row.

I'll say it again: the right here and right now is just too wonderful - be it in person or via Skype!