The moment was surreal for me. I was holding my husband’s hand with my head bowed praying for one of my best friend’s baby that was being dedicated to The Lord. I had just held this sweet baby for the first time only minutes before the dedication. The smell of his sweet skin and innocence in his eyes took me back to when my girls were babies. I remember Ryan and I bringing them before the church and making the same commitment. In that moment of remembering my eyes filled up with tears.

My babies are teenagers now and gone are the days of the sweet baby smell and the innocence in their eyes. They are trudging through trying to find their way in this big world where school shootings, suicides, drugs, alcohol, and anxieties have reached a whole new high. I work in a high school where I see teenagers up close and personal. Their world is “Me-centric” where all that matters is the here and now. Parents voices begin to fade and their need for their peers approval begin to speak louder and cause confusion. I’d like to say that because I chose to take my daughters to the front of the church all those years ago that they are dismissed from the chaos, but that is not true. They do not receive a free pass on the struggles of life. We all have to go through them, but when you are surrounded by a community of faith and JESUS is their foundation… there is HOPE and a PROMISE that keeps us parents on our knees and fighting for our babies.

“Do NOT let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come back and take you to be with me that you may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Thomas said to him, “Lord we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus answered, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” John 14:1-11

Ryan and I made it back in time to go to our church at Currey Creek, and we are so grateful. This is the message that was shared. The timing is always perfect from The Lord. I love it…Jesus tells his disciples, “STOP letting your hearts be troubled!” BELIEVE!!!  Trust in God and BELIEVE IN ME! There is not one second of our days where our God has forgotten us. He REMEMBERS our dedication.  He REMEMBERS our salvation! All 3 of my babies have said YES to JESUS!  They are HIS! That promise that He made to His disciples are for you and for me! He is ACTIVE!  He is working on our behalf here and now and also in the future. I love that he says he is preparing a place for us…and then he goes on to say that he is coming back. You would think it would say that he is coming back to take us to the place he is preparing, but the verse says, “I will come back and take you to be with ME!” You guys…Jesus LOVES us and wants us to be with HIM!  There is nothing better than that good news my friends. 

We all have moments when we think like Doubting Thomas and Realist Philip. These guys are the real deal. They dropped everything to follow Christ and yet they struggled. We all do. We all fall short. Jesus is calling us to simply BELIEVE! Don’t stop trusting in God and BELIEVING in JESUS! He is the EXCLUSIVE way to the Father. You cannot get to the Father without believing in JESUS CHRIST! PRAY! Cry out to HIM!  Get on your knees for your children. There is an evil that is trying to steal them away, but when God’s people PRAY, God is VICTORIOUS.  He will NOT let them be plucked from HIS hands. Keep speaking the truth in love to your children. Keep loving them. Keep showing them your TRUST in God…and watch our Faithful Father do what only HE can do! Jesus SAVES! He will see our babies through all of their precious days!!!  #ARISE #BELIEVE #PRAY