Kenna's Decision

Over the last few weeks I've been thinking and praying about Kenna's awareness about her need for a Savior.  With Easter coming and going, we had opportunities to talk about WHY Jesus died on the cross.  And Charis had even commented that Kenna was older than Charis herself was when she prayed to ask Jesus into her heart.  Charis recently completed a Child Evangelism Fellowship training course and had asked if she could sometime go through the wordless book presentation with Kenna to see if she was ready.  Of course I told her that was a wonderful idea!

Well, tonight when I was tucking Kenna into bed, I asked her what she learned in Sunday school.  We usually try to discuss that around our lunch table, but today's lunch was pretty chaotic with getting leftovers heated for everyone and whisking Charis out the door for call time for her show, then the rest of the crew out to SEE the show while the little boys and I stayed home to nap.

Anyway, it worked well that we hadn't had that discussion yet!  Kenna told me that she learned about the woman who wiped Jesus' feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.  Our conversation then went something like this:

"Why did she do that, Kenna?"

"Because she loved Jesus so much."

"That's right.  We can't wash Jesus' feet now because He's in heaven, but we can still show Him that we love Him by loving and serving other people."

"How can we give Jesus stuff?"

"Jesus doesn't need any of our stuff!  He already has everything--but what we CAN give Jesus is our heart!  Someday when you're ready, you can pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart."

"I want to pray now!"

We went back downstairs and told Grandma and Grandpa K, who are here visiting, what was going on, and Charis, who was reading on the couch, went and got her wordless book.  We sat together while Charis went through the pages and made sure Kenna understood everything.  We (Kenna and I) recently had a conversation about the gospel message...in fact, we've had a few of these conversations lately!  Now that I think about it, there was a touching parenting moment recently that I believe God used to prepare Kenna's heart for tonight's decision...I'll write about that in a moment.

Kenna listened to Charis (being just a bit silly now and then, but mostly I think because she was in a hurry to just go ahead and pray!), and then we prayed together.  What a joy to share this moment with her AND her big sister AND her grandparents!  I'm still in awe over how it all came together!

So about a week or so ago I discovered Kenna eating out of Lucan's box of Easter jelly beans.
1.  She did not have permission to be eating candy.
2.  She stole Lucan's candy.
3.  She then lied about eating Lucan's candy, even though the evidence was CLEARLY hard to mistake!

I took her up to her room, and we had a very precious time of conversation.  I felt God impressing on me that this was NOT the time to punish her, even though her actions clearly deserved punishment.  She knew she had done wrong!  She was very tearful and repentant (probably more sorry she got caught, but still, I believe she was indeed sad about her sin!).  I told her that because she had sinned, she deserved to be punished...and the Spirit led me to tell her the good news about how God reaches down with grace and mercy on all of us, who deserve eternal punishment, and instead gave us Jesus, who bore our sins on the cross.  I made it clear that USUALLY, in our house, anyone who disobeyed, stole, and lied would have been disciplined!  But to show her a picture of what God did for us through Jesus, I chose NOT to give Kenna that punishment.

Thankfully, I am pleased to report that she has, to date, refrained from repeating said sinful behavior, and I would like to think that our little talk made an impact on her that helped lead her to tonight's decision.  What a joy and a blessing to lead our little ones to Christ!  Another child joins the kingdom of heaven, and the angels are partying tonight!