Thoughts

I shared my heart today with my girls, my eighth grade Sunday school girls, as I do every time I teach. It is hard to know how much they get from it. I know I teach way above their heads sometimes, but I am only there out of obedience to what the Lord would have me do. I am, in a sense, there as John the Baptist for them. To prepare the way for the Lord. And I deliver the Word to them, and sometimes we have some fun. But mostly, I am just nervously sweating and losing my place and finding my place(!) and sharing theology. Things like "justification" and "substitutionary atonement." Things I wish I'd learned in Sunday school. We have been working on memorizing John 1:1-18 for a year and a half! (I'm not sure they're doing their homework.) And we are going to try out a mother-daughter book study this fall. I feel blessed to be a part of all of it.

This morning, I shared briefly how the things that define me now are much different than the desires I had when I was young. I never thought of marriage or children as a very good plan for my future. I was selfish and simple. But God worked on me with a chisel. He blessed me with an amazing husband and four adorable children. And as He sanctified me, He also saved me and then blessed me some more. I consider David and John Armour to be an Ebenezer to me--marking the place in my life where I can look back and see how far He's brought me never to return. They came to me as a covenant, marking the transformation of my heart.

I didn't tell the girls all of this, but I did tell them that I would never have chosen to stand in front of them to teach. Never in a million years! Teach middle school girls? Ack! But I am facing my fears and loving the opportunity to serve my Savior in obedience to his great commission.