Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Spiritual discipline

For school this week, we were talking about Faith. I found a short list of ways to grow your faith (Bible study, prayer, worship, fasting, and conversations with other Christians) and challenged the kids to choose one to do this week.

Anna chose fasting. 6yo Anna. Even after the other kids talked about other things, and even after she counted the cost of missing lunch, she was committed. So today was the day.

As the time for lunch grew nearer and nearer, Anna began asking about what the three of us were going to eat. I was not going to get all legalistic on her. If she was going to eat, that was fine. Finally I asked her what she was asking for, and why she seemed to be growing stressed out (aside from blood sugar).

What came out is that Anna heard that not only do you give up a meal, but you serve others a meal. For the life of me, I have no idea where she got that from. But she was determined. So she painstakingly made my sandwich and served me during her fast.

As I got to thinking about it, I had more and more 'how cool' waves come across my brain. Not only did she stick to her fast, but the direct impact in her heart was to serve her family what she was going without.

2 comments:

Cheryl said...

What an amazing illustration of how powerfully kids get it. Too often, we "grown ups" don't give children credit to think that they can fully understand the implications of faith. In reality, they get it far more often than we.

This also shows me that you are to be commended for raising spiritually aware children.

I'm challenged by your daughter's example, and by your example as well!

Lisa said...

So cool, Em! And so challenging. Thanks for sharing this bit of encouragement. Tell Anna that I am inspired by her and count it a blessing to know her!