Remember When?

Lauren and Elijah work on memorizing a Bible verse every night from a chart I've made for them. When they get a row completed, 5 verses for Lauren and 4 for Elijah, they get to choose a treat at the dollar store. When the whole chart is completed, 5 rows, they get to pick a toy up to $20. (I know my little girl is growing up by the fact that she's working toward getting her ears pierced for her big prize this time!)


When they begin learning a new verse, I explain to them what the words and verse means. Saturday night we came to Romans 14:12 for Elijah's new verse. "So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God."


I told him that one day we will all have to stand before God and talk to Him about every good and bad thing we have done. But, those of us who have given our lives to Jesus will not be punished for the sins we've committed. I've discovered concepts like these are difficult to put in child-like terms, and not wanting Elijah to feel like that meant he could get away with whatever he wanted because of grace, I told him that we will also need to explain to God why we decided not to obey Him for every time we chose not to. 


At this point Elijah'e eyes started getting bigger and bigger. Then as a tear started to come, he said in a  deeply concerned voice, "But I have a horrible memory!"


Desperately trying not to laugh, I told Elijah that the Bible says the Holy Spirit helps remind us of the things of God, (John 14:26), and that God will make sure we remember before we have to answer.


Afterwards I began thinking: How often do we blow over the times we have chosen not to obey God. Not walking over to talk to someone the Spirit prompts us to may not seem like a big deal now. But, if we start looking at it as a choice between obeying God's direction here - no matter how odd it may seem - or having to stand in the presence of God, one on one, and having to explain why we chose to ignore Him, perhaps we would listen better and obey more often. I know I will begin thinking in this way more often. So, who knows what you will see me doing...