Tell me the story...

“Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.”  Proverbs 22:6

Today, my heart is full with purpose and promise as I set out on the road He has for me. I want to be faithful in my calling (which is to parent these precious ones). I want to be faithful in staying on the "right path" that He has set before me. My job, is really to live in such a way that they are introduced to the beauty and majesty of Our Creator....and then trust Him to do the rest. I believe fully and confidently that my children belong to Him. I cannot say why, or how I know that. And I do not have any guarantees that it will not be without pain or heartbreak on the way. In fact, The Lord has already pricked my heart in some ways, telling me that it WILL be with some amount of heartache.  But if He has so generously wooed the heart of a rebel like me....well then, I know He will faithfully draw the hearts of my children as well. He is that kind.

And even my sweet Ezra, whom I suspect may bring the greatest heartache in one way or another (either by rebellion or by diving in head first to God's purposes and being met by persecution)....even now he is enamored with the cross of Christ. 

"Tell me a story mommy....tell me the one of Jesus dying on the cross!"

And so I keep telling it, over and over again....because this is my deepest prayer, that they would be enamored with the cross of Christ, and that by it, they would be reminded of God's great love for them.

Because there are other days, and many of them, when I am not so full of purpose and promise. When I am not so confident that I will ever see fruit from this labor. When I am almost certain that my own selfishness and unfaithfulness to my calling will ruin them and theirs. But thanks be to God!

It is on those days that I tell the story even more, and wonder again at its hope.

1. Tell me the story of Jesus,
   Write on my heart every word;
   Tell me the story most precious,
   Sweetest that ever was heard.
   Tell how the angels in chorus,
   Sang as they welcomed His birth,
   “Glory to God in the highest!
   Peace and good tidings to earth.”
   • Refrain:
     Tell me the story of Jesus,
     Write on my heart every word;
     Tell me the story most precious,
     Sweetest that ever was heard.
2. Fasting alone in the desert,
   Tell of the days that are past,
   How for our sins He was tempted,
   Yet was triumphant at last.
   Tell of the years of His labor,
   Tell of the sorrow He bore;
   He was despised and afflicted,
   Homeless, rejected and poor.
3. Tell of the cross where they nailed Him,
   Writhing in anguish and pain;
   Tell of the grave where they laid Him,
   Tell how He liveth again.
   Love in that story so tender,
   Clearer than ever I see;
   Stay, let me weep while you whisper,
   “Love paid the ransom for me.”