Friday, August 22, 2008

Proud Daddy and Spiritual Reminders

Last night I had one of those very proud moments as a daddy. After a very long week and three evenings in a row away from my family, I got home from a meeting to a very excited daughter. That evening, she with a number of other children from the Grace Children's ministry had finished their worship team rehearsal for Sunday. As I came through the door, she couldn't wait to put the kids worship DVD into the player and go to the song "Forever".

Now this isn't the first time she has sung for me, so I wasn't sure what all the excitement was about until I came to understand that she had created her own actions to the song and that she had been given the privilege of teaching and leading all the other kids on Sunday. I say all that not to boast but rather to share what went through my heart at the moment.

1) It was one of those "WOW, thank you Lord for a daughter that loves to worship you and express her love for you through music and motions."

2) It gave me pause to pray quickly right then and there that God would continue to guard her heart and cause her to spend a lifetime growing in her love for Jesus and His Word.

3) It allowed me to breath a temporary sigh of relief with a small smile that was saying "I guess we're doing OK as parents even though we're far from perfect." It's nice to get those little reminders from the Lord once in a while.

4) It refocused me to make sure that Susan and I keep the focus on praying for and raising our children in the ways of the Lord. I'm still a number of years off from launching them off onto their own and I need to take advantage of every God moment to impress the love of Christ and truth of Scripture upon their hearts.

Finally, it gave me a brief look at how my heavenly Father must feel when we as His children worship Him in simple abandon. It must refresh His heart and bring a smile to His face just like my daughter did to this proud daddy.

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