Lessons from my 6 year old

With Chloe gone this week, Emma and I have had some quality one on one time. Something she has needed for a while. But this week, we've had fun time, art time, swim time, and serious time.

Serious time took place beside the pool this morning. Before I can get to the serious stuff you need to understand some background information. :)

Emma became a Christian last Christmas. She had been telling us for several months that she needed Jesus to live in her heart because she was the only one in our family without Him. I wanted her to understand that she needed Him because she was a sinner, not because she was the only one without Him.

So during the weeks leading up to Christmas we had the "What Does God Want for Christmas" kit. (LifeWay sold it) We read part of the book and opened one "gift" a day for several days. On the last day, the gift we opened was a mirror. When you look in the mirror you see what God wants for Christmas -you!

It was on that last day that she told me she needed Jesus because she did "bad stuff" and needed Jesus to make it right. I knew she got it. We rejoiced, called the grandparents and celebrated.

Then came the issue of Baptism. Emma does NOT like to be center stage in a large group of people. When her children's choir sings, we do not tell her where we are sitting and try not to make eye contact with her if she sees us. She has been known to walk off the stage straight to us. We haven't pushed the issue of baptism because of this. We don't want it to freak her out, much less cause a tidlewave in the precious waters!!

Recently she told us she was ready to do this and felt like she could do it if my Dad would do it at his church. So, this weekend we travel to Chattanooga for my Dad to baptize Emma. It will be so special as he baptized Chloe too.

Okay, with that out of the way...back to the serious time at the pool.

We were talking about what why we are baptized. That it is an act of obedience to be done after you ask Jesus to live in your heart. This is where she proceeded to tell me that Jesus lives in her spiritual heart not her "beeping" heart. She wanted to make sure that I understood that. I told her I did and she said good, she just wanted to make sure. I smiled.

The good stuff happened next when our neighbors L. and her 3 year old daughter T. came to swim with us. Emma says we're going to Chattanooga for me to be baptized this weekend!! L. says really, that's neat. T. says in her curious 3 year old voice why is she going? L. says well, she has a special baptism this weekend. T. says what's that for? Emma says, it's because I have Jesus in my spiritual heart, not my beeping heart. I'm a Christian.

I smiled and didn't really know what to say. This is a fairly new neighbor and I'm unsure of her faith. She didn't say much after that for a little while, but she did move over to sit near us! We love to play with them and I'm praying that this will be the beginning of some spiritual conversation. What does it say about a little child leading them? Sometimes we big people can learn much from the honesty of a little person.