God speaking through our children

Wow, how incredible God is. I was inspired by our pastor, Chris and his daughter Torie. They get up every morning at 630am and do a bible study. I have been wanting to do it with Catie for a couple of weeks, but 630am is so early! (I am not much of a morning person.) I have been told and read in the Bible that you should give first fruits to God. Debra at our church recently had a baby and spoke very eloquently about how she just now realized what first fruits were. It is the first of everything you have. Your first breath in the morning, your first tree that you spot everyday, the first sip of hot coffee in the morning, (okay, I added that one.) You get the picture, she painted a very pretty one too. Thank you Debra for taking the time to do that for us.

So, I wanted to start trying to live up to that request from God. He laid it on my heart and gave me sign after sign that that was what he wanted me to do. So, I spoke to Catie about it. I asked her if she would like to do a bible study with me in the mornings before school? She, without hesitation, said yes! I told her that we would get up at 630am and get it done before 7am, so we can get ready for school and all that. She was excited and went to bed earlier than normal so she could still get plenty of sleep. A funny side note. When I brought this up and asked her what she wanted to learn about, she wanted to go into Revalations. That is her favorite, "because it has lots of prayers." Her favorite verse so far in the bible is the last verse of Revalations.

Anyway, my alarm went off bright and early this morning. I had been worried that I would oversleep and had been waking up about every 15 minutes starting at about 530am, just to make sure that I did not over sleep.(yuck) When my alarm went off, I got up and went to wake up Catie. She woke right up. I poured my coffee and then put some water on the stove for her so she could have hot chocolate. I explained to her what we would be doing. Chris suggested starting at the beginning because that showed what God was all about. His creation, His love for his people. What a great basis to begin with a child. Catie has a NIrV bible. It is a young readers version of the NIV. It is really awesome. It has little blurbs about how a child can put to use what the bible says. It also gives backgrounds about areas and bible times. So, we sat down and I told her that I would read Genesis 1. I wanted her to listen to it and if anything stands out to note it and we would go back to it. When I got done reading, we were quiet for about 20 seconds and just looked over the words. When we were done, I let her have the bible and I went to make her hot chocolate. After I sat down again, she had underlined 2 passages. It was the end of verse 18 - "And God saw that it was good." and the beginning of 2:3 - "God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. He rested on it." Wow, I was excited. I asked her what made those stand out? She said that God really like what He did, he made it perfect and worked really hard to do that. She said that after all that, he took a day to reflect and rest. She said that is what we do when we go to church and we need to make sure to do it. I told her that was great! I said, now lets see what else God has to say about it and we took a moment to reflect on those to verses when I read them again. She said basically the same thing. The thing that struck me about it was that she was confident. She knew exactly what God was trying to tell her. I tell you what, my child is connected to God. I knew it after she got out of the hospital and I feel terrible that it took me over 3 years to really get it and start growing her in God's word. I told her when we got done that God has a special plan for her and I don't know what it is, but He does and we need to be sure to get in His word so she can learn it and live it. She was excited! She told me she knew He did and she was sure about it. I sort of felt like maybe that is what Mary felt like while Jesus was learning when he was young. Proud and excited to see God's workmanship in front of her and knowing that He had a very large purpose in his future. I am sure that as he was learning and growing, he knew it and he got it. I know that sounds crazy and I hope that it is not sacrelgious for me to say that, but that was the only way I can describe my feelings of being with her this morning.

At the end of our reading, I told her what I would like her to do today is to take time to look at the things God made that were "good". Breath them in and rejoice in the things He perfected for us. I told her when I picked her up, I wanted to know some of those things that she saw today. She was excited and I can't wait to see what she says this afternoon!

Oh, another amazing thing, I am not that tired. I sort of feel revived. Maybe getting up early is not so bad when you are doing it for God. It is just another chance for God to bless you with energy for the day ahead.

Until we read again...