Whoa - that's weird...nope - that's God.

This morning the family made it to church for the first time in weeks! Between Andy and my plague-infected selves and our traveling, church has been missed a lot this summer; both physically and spiritually. It felt good to be back and have people smiling and asking after our absences as we made our way to drop the kids off at the Kids Zone and get ourselves to the sanctuary.

Before we left the house as we gathered up the child/church accoutrement, Emma glanced at our Bibles. She looked at them thoughtfully as they lay stacked on the counter waiting to be loaded into the car. Then she said, "Mama, when do we read the Bible?" I was immediately convicted of how little I actually read my Bible outside of church. I responded, "You can read the Bible any time. We could read it after school or at bedtime or whenever we feel like it." Then she asked why we read the Bible. (She's really into the "why" questions these days, right Papa?) So I gave her the standard response that we read the Bible to know what God tells us about how to live our lives and make good choices. And so the conversation went on until we were all loaded in the car and other things caught her attention. I thought about it all the way to church. I mean, Emma loves to read. We read fairy tales, chapter books, picture books, and she even demands narration of movies and TV shows after we watch them. Then it occurred to me that other than the times that Emma chooses one of the few (shamefully few) Bible story books for her bedtime reading, we really don't talk about the Bible with her that much outside of church.

So...all of that to end with this.
Andy and I got settled and jumped into our Sunday morning worship like normal. Then our pastor, Mark, began with the "Question of the Day" which usually is related somehow to his message. The question today: What is your favorite book? This of course led into his discussion of why we, as a congregation, spend so little time in the word of God. I was dumbfounded. My daughter had just set up today's sermon on her own - with a little help from the man upstairs. So Andy & I were encouraged to begin reading our Bibles more often and to include Emma. I am currently researching picture Bibles online and plan to make my way to Martel's or Lifeway this week to get Emma her 1st Bible. (Sadly, she hasn't yet received her own.) It's convicting and exciting all at the same time. Thank you Lord for showing us just how incredible your Spirit is to bring about your Will through the questions of a child.