Faith of a Child

I love Tuesday mornings. Today was not great (I had a lot of roadblocks in my way: late to bed, late out of bed, had to prep for school instead of shower... bad stuff), but in general, I love Tuesday mornings. I have 2nd Grade English during first hour. These kids are great. At our school, each teacher begins the day with his or her class with a devotion and prayer. Usually the kids are great: they patiently sit and listen during the Bible reading and then nearly everyone in the class contributes during prayer time, praying thankfulness for being able to go to school, to attend a Christian school, for ill classmates and family members and so on. Today was a different story.

The brief reading this morning was Matthew 10: 32-33: "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven."

Just as the main teacher was opening the Bible and getting ready to read, one of the boys jumped out of his chair and ran to his backpack on its hook across the room. He grabbed something and raced back to his desk and started opening it: a little plastic bag with a blue book in it. The teacher said to him, "It's time to read. What are you doing?" His only response was to say "I know" and finish removing the book from the bag and flip through the pages. He asked for the reference again, and at this point, she and I both realized that it was a Bible, and that he was getting ready to follow along on his own. She repeated the reference and invited him to read to the class, and he did.

After this, she asked the students if they had ever told anyone about Jesus. One boy shared a story about telling a non-believing cousin about Jesus, a girl told about talking to a friend, and another boy shared that he talks to his Dad about Jesus, because only his Mom is a Christian. After this, the teacher asked for prayer volunteers, and hands shot up all over the room. So we began to pray. Probably 10 of the children said little prayers for their friends and family members. I took my turn to praise Christ for the faith which He has so graciously and amazingly granted to these beautiful children, and to plead that this faith will be sustained and increased as they grow older, that they might be given more opportunities to acknowledge Christ before men.

May these children continue to be faithful witnesses throughout their lives.