One Sunday morning I walked into my 5 year old daughter's room to find her already dressed for church. She had on a black satin dress, pink and white plastic shoes, several strands of mardi-gras beads, and a red feathered tiara. I quickly tried to "fix" the situation.
"Honey, can we put on our black shoes? The pink shoes don't match your dress." She grabbed me by the hand and quietly said "Mother, Jesus doesn't care if I match and church is about Jesus, It's not about you." So we went to church proudly in our plastic shoes and tiara.
I saw this as one more example of the irritating strong-will of my child and have told friends the story with surprise that she played "the Jesus card" to put a hasty end to any discussion on the matter. I'm often shocked by her ability to out-think me.
I recently got a response that changed my way of looking at the episode. Someone said "How awesome is it she had such confidence Jesus loves her just as she is? How great would it be if every child of God had that kind of faith?" And I was reminded that that they were both right. It is about Jesus, not me.
It is now my fervent prayer that she carry that level of faith with her for the rest of her life. I am making a conscious effort to see her, and myself, with the heart and eyes of Christ.
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we are blessed to have children in our lives who highlight the inconsistencies between our behaviours and our faith..... if we are advocating that we shouldn't judge people by their looks, clothes, possessions ,,,, etc, then why do matching shoes and feathers matter?
ReplyDeleteSo please have mercy on me when I "allow" my kids to show up in scruffy jeans and t-shirts on Sunday :-)
Lynn
p.s. ... love what you're doing here!
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