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February 25, 2013 · 9:06 am

The Worst Testimony Ever

I have the worst testimony ever.

At least, that’s what I used to think.

There’s no moving brilliance about being pulled from the pits of despair. There’s no drug use or living on the streets, no emotionally heart-wrenching abuse or moment between life and death where I saw Jesus.

My testimony was boring and I never liked sharing it.

I came to an understanding that I wanted to follow Jesus Christ as my savior when I was six years old.

How would I describe it? Underwhelming, probably.

There was no big epiphany. There was no glowing light or warm fuzzies.

There was only Jesus. There was no other option for me– I would follow him for life because that’s what I knew to be right.

So I always hated sharing my testimony because it wasn’t emotional enough. It wasn’t dangerous enough. It wasn’t riveting and brilliant and “worthy” of being called a testimony.

But here’s the thing– even at six years old, I did make a choice between life and death. And lucky for me, I made it before I had to live through the harsh realities of this world and all of the pitfalls that can befall man. I chose life.

And ever since, God has been working on me, changing me and molding me into the person he would have me be.

Has life been perfect? Absolutely not.

And that’s where my testimony is.

My testimony is the moment on Easter Sunday when I was thirteen years old and I finally realized exactly what it meant for Jesus to sacrifice his life for me.

My testimony is the tumor on my brain that God healed through the guided hands of a surgeon when I was twenty.

My testimony is the infertility issues that plagued my marriage and the blessings and miracles that have resulted in my sons.

My testimony is the daily twists and turns of life, the choices I make, the will of God, and how I relate the two.

My testimony is the blood of Christ that was shed for me, just as much as it was shed for everyone else.

My testimony isn’t one moment– it’s a life full of Jesus.

It’s beautiful. It’s tragic. It’s emotional. It’s riveting.

It might not feature the drama that some others have, but my testimony is a deliverance from sin, the redeeming of the blood, the moment when I was created and God said, “I love you.”

It’s a testimony I’m proud to share.

Share with me: What moments in your life speak to your testimony?

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Filed under The Christian Walk

Tagged as bible, choice, Jesus, salvation, testimony

March 2, 2012 · 6:00 am

How Do You Raise a Disciple?

This is not the post I had planned for today, but something really wonderful happened in our family this week and it changed the direction of my thinking.

Earlier in the week, our oldest son who is nearly six, prayed to ask Christ into his heart.

We are celebrating!

We’re celebrating because we know that he’ll spend eternity in the presence of God and celebrating that he’s chosen this path.

But now what?

The focus moves from leading him to Christ to helping him become a disciple. But just exactly how do we do that? I’m assuming with a lot of prayer, because that’s how we’ve been doing it all along.

Although my husband and I aren’t necessarily surprised by our son’s decision to follow Christ as his Lord and Savior, we were somewhat surprised by the timing. We thought it would take longer for him to make this decision.

You see, our son is incredibly logical. Logical to a fault, most times.

When we first started mentioning the idea of “accepting Christ” or “asking Christ into your heart” or “following Jesus”, our son saw no need for such things.

In his young mind there was no other option but to follow Jesus. As he reasoned to us, Jesus has always been in his heart. His five year-old self saw no other possibilities in life but to love, honor, and follow Christ.

This is a wonderful, enviable view on life.

So it took us awhile to help him understand that the choice to follow Christ is just that–a choice. Yet again he reasoned that for him there is and was no other option. For awhile he even argued that there was no reason for him to accept Christ into his heart–He was already there.

This has been an ongoing, on again-off again discussion for several months in our house. My husband and I have prayed since the moment we found out we were expecting a child (both times) that we’d raise our children to love the Lord. So, when the right moments presented themselves, we discussed it and our son reasoned.

Last Sunday morning as we were driving to church he suddenly piped up from the back seat, “Hey Mom, Dad. I’m ready to be baptized.”

We spoke about it for a few minutes and asked if he was ready to pray to ask Jesus into his heart. In his unique style he said, “I am. But I’m going to do it on Saturday.”

My husband and I smiled at each other– he’s not ready, we thought.

But the very next night at bedtime, once we’d settled in to say prayers, unprompted our son says, “I’m ready to say a special prayer now.” And he did.

Although I couldn’t help but get a little weepy, my son was very logical about it. (No shocker.) He approached the whole thing from the attitude that “I’ve always loved and followed Jesus, and now I’m just confirming that this is what I want to do with my life.”

And now that he’s made this decision, we’re looking forward to his baptism (not sure when that’s going to happen yet) and our focus shifts just a little bit.

Now we must raise him to become a disciple of Christ. I’d love your feedback in the comments about any books, ideas, etc, that have helped you do this with your own kids.

One of the things that has really stimulated conversations about Jesus is this Bible. It was given to our boys by their aunt and each and every story in it ties back to the sacrifice and redeeming salvation of Christ, but on a kid’s level.

Click here for the link to Amazon.com

We love it because it’s easy to read, it’s interesting, and for me, it’s made me consider new perspectives on stories I’ve known since I was my son’s age.

Even though we’ve had other picture Bibles, this one, by far, has offered the opportunity to discuss the idea of sin, redemption and grace more than any of the others. If you’re looking for a good kid’s Bible, I recommend that you check this one out.

As my husband and I continue to pray that we’ll raise our sons to love and serve the Lord, we’re celebrating this special blessing. And we pray that our two year-old will follow in his big brother’s footsteps.

I know there are other parents out there wanting encouragement as to how to lead your child to Christ, and then after set them on a road of life-long discipleship, so…

Share with me: When it comes to teaching your kids about following Christ, what worked for you? What books and other things do you recommend? When teaching your children about discipleship and the life-long adventure of Christianity, what do you recommend?

Don’t forget about my giveaway going on until 3/6/12. Have you entered yet? If not, do that here.