Heaven...

Kason is in that age when he loves talking about Heaven, about seeing God and Jesus and then of course about dying and stuff. :)  We had a nice fire going tonight, since we've been having a very Fall kind of weather lately.  Somehow it started Kason thinking about hell and probably for the first time he really felt convicted and worried he'd be with the people burning in hell.  We talk about having Jesus in our hearts and asking Him to be our Savior but I always disliked people almost pushing it onto the kids.  I haven't met one young child yet that would be like "oh no, I don't care if I end up in hell.  I don't need Jesus."  And so, with our kids, I really want it to be something they bring up, something they feel very strongly about.  With Kade, he was still little, about 4 years old and for some reason he started thinking about death a lot and what will happen after he dies and that was it, he really wanted Jesus so that he would be sure that's where he's going to be.

With Kason I've been waiting for him to bring it up and recently he has put a lot of thought into it so I tonight after he brought it up by the fire I asked him if he'd like to ask Jesus into his heart.  It was so touching to watch a child-like faith.  He cried as he prayed about his sins and when we were done he jumped up and said "I can't wait to see Jesus!"  It made me smile and I told him that Jesus is not the only one excited, that the angels are singing and having a party all because Kason is going to be in Heaven one day.  He couldn't believe it and got even more excited about that. :)  I love how honest children are and how big their faith can be.

I talk about this off and on with Anika too but she's ever so compliant to everything and I'm almost afraid to ask her to do what Kade and Kason have done because it feels as though she would just do it for me and she probably already said yes to it but I'm not sure it came from her.  And so I'll wait until she asks me, until she realizes she wants this for herself and it is something that she decided on her own.

I know that our kids have a long road ahead of them, a lot of ups and downs and it almost seems to me that a person has to make a decision to follow Christ over and over at each stage of his life.  To recommit his life to Him and get back on track. We have not been very good about our devotion times lately and I've been feeling bad about that.  So I'm very thankful to God that He stirs the hearts of our kids even if we are lagging.  I pray that we can be the parents He created us to be, to encourage, guide and pray as our kids grow. 

We read our old kids book about Heaven tonight.  Kason and Ani both love imagining what it will be like there as we read it.  The angels sang praises there today and the thought of it makes my heart smile.  We are not home yet and have no idea just how awesome it will be once we get there. :)