Peyton surprised us in the best possible way recently. What
happened came out of nowhere, but maybe we shouldn’t have been shocked.
Our family, like many, is pretty consistent about praying
before meals. So far in our kids’ lives, however, we’ve typically said a pretty
simple prayer together: thank you Jesus
for this food and for this family…amen. As our kids have aged, we have
begun to pray more complex prayers together, but most of the time we still say
our simple family prayer.
But just the other day, when Mandy asked if we were ready to
pray before our meal, Peyton spoke up and said she would pray. We both assumed she would simply lead us in our
typical prayer, but instead, she prayed her own prayer. And it was awesome.
Simple and juvenile, but still serious, thoughtful, and heartfelt.
We were blown away! Where did that come from?! None of us
were expecting that to happen—and even Zoe was floored by Peyton’s great,
spontaneously-led prayer.
But later that night, as Mandy and I processed the occasion
further, we determined that maybe we shouldn’t have been so stunned. I mean, I
DO pray for a living! And we are a very spiritually active family. While we
have never forced our kids into spiritual practices before they are ready, they
both have witnessed our spiritual practices on countless occasions.
I guess Peyton has
been paying attention!
Which is the main thing we took away from this fun,
spiritual moment: our kids are paying
attention. They are sponges, soaking up the way we live, talk, and treat
one another. They are always learning, whether we want them to or not. And to
make the point more universally applicable: everyone’s
always watching. We far-too-often watch each other in order to judge and
condemn when someone fails, but still, we watch. And because of this
voyeuristic tendency in our culture, we have the opportunity to bear witness to
a watching world of a new way of being human—a life infused with the grace, peace,
and love of the gospel of Jesus.
Our responsibility is to be models of right living for a
watching world. We can’t make new disciples of Christ if no one actually sees
us living as disciples of Christ, so let’s commit to living boldly and publicly
for Christ—bearing witness to the new, alternative existence we have found
through Jesus’ salvation. The world is paying attention, so let’s make sure
they see Jesus in and through us.
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