Jeremiah has Jesus in his heart

All settled in our condo now, Jeremiah and Daniel took the five minute walk to the beautiful Atlantic beach for a couple of hours while Mailey and I rested in peace at home. :) It has been incredibly wonderful having the ocean so close to home! The afternoon sun does get a little hot if you're not in the water, but the boys have no trouble jumping right in and enjoying splashing and coming home covered in salt and sand. Daniel loves spending time with Jeremiah--laughing, exploring (they found both a dead frog and sea turtle on this particular day), and talking (of course). If you know either Daniel or Jeremiah very well, you know they love to talk. :) And throughout their talks, Daniel is constantly teaching Jeremiah about Jesus. Our first ministry is in our home with our children. And it is a such an amazing thing seeing them grow into kids big enough to begin to understand the things of God.

We wanted to share something from our personal lives with our four-year-old son, Jeremiah. Last Saturday night (August 13th), as we were getting the kids settled down and into bed, Jeremiah and I were talking about Heaven. He has always been a very analytical kid with all sorts of interesting (and sometimes disturbing) questions. We have had lots of conversations together that I wouldn't have expected to have until he was older, and one of those conversations has to do with death and dying. He tends to be pretty anxious and fearful about things, and wants to have all the information about something before he will trust you and try something or do something new or scary.

He has had a lot of questions about Heaven, about dying, and about death in general, and we are always quick to speak of the peace we having knowing we will be with Jesus in Heaven when we die. We have had countless talks about being in Heaven together, what Heaven might be like, and why we don't need to be afraid. Well, this time, Jeremiah wanted to know about people who don't have Jesus in their heart--what happens to them? He thought that since they don't go to Heaven, they don't ever have to die. He has often told us (in the typical Jeremiah fashion), "I don't EVER want Jesus in my heart and I won't go to Heaven!" Then he'd do his "villain" laugh that he's famous for, and we would look at each other and try not to freak out. :) Well, this time I understood why Jeremiah didn't want to go to Heaven. He didn't want to die. 

Well, realizing that Jeremiah's resistance to Heaven had to do more with death than with Heaven itself, I began to tell him what the Bible says about people that don't have Jesus in their heart. I told him about Hell, and I started answering his questions--one after another, after another. 

We talked a long time, and Daddy joined the conversation with us part-way through. Jeremiah was adamant that he didn't want to be in Hell. And he didn't want Jesus in his heart quite yet. So, we prayed with him, and promised to talk more about it tomorrow.

As I tucked Jeremiah into bed, he wanted to know about people that don't have to die ever--people that Jesus will come and take to Heaven with Him. And I told Him we don't know all about that, but we DO know that Jesus promised He was coming back, and that there will be some people, (maybe even us!), who won't have to die, and will be in Heaven with Jesus too. He thought for a second, and told me we would ask Jesus in his heart tomorrow. "But what if Jesus comes tonight?" I asked.

"Then I should ask Him to come in now!!" He sat up in bed and we prayed together and Jeremiah asked Jesus to come into his heart, to forgive his sins, and to take him to be in Heaven someday.

This is our greatest PRAISE report ever! We are so thankful that God is at work not only in us, but our kids as well! Let's continue to pray that we can raise children to know the love of Jesus in their lives!