Bedtime Stories to Remember

 

Olivia got this devotional for Christmas and I am learning as much from it as she is.  It's that good!  Here are a few moments I want to remember:

 

1. January 31th the devotional was from  Matt 14:14 "He felt sorry for them."

 We were learning about splanchnizomai, which is the Greek word for "in the gut".  It describes that Jesus felt the pain of the crippled, the sick, the lonely leper, and the shameful sinner as a punch in the gut.  Once Jesus felt their hurts, he healed them.  The question that night was, "Who do you feel sorry for?  How can you help".   Without giving the question a thought, Olivia answered, "Grandpa Tucker.  We can pray for him."  And pray for him we did.  This was the night that my Grandpa Robel has passed away. 

2.  Tonight, February 11th, we learned about a "Feast of Kindness", from 1 John 3:17.  "Suppose  a believer is rich enough to have all that he needs. He sees his brother in Christ who is poor and does not have what he needs.  What if the believer does nothing to help the poor brother?  Then the believer does not have God's love in his heart."  One of the questions was "Are there any kids in your class who don't have anyone to sit with at lunch?".  Olivia was very thoughtful and serious as she pondered the question.  Pretty soon she said, "Well, there's this one lady who sits by herself.  We call her Grandma Ruth.  She helps us do our testing sometimes".  Richard and I couldn't help but burst out laughing. It's so wonderful to know that in kindergarten (or Olivia's class, at least), kids still practice kindness. 

3.  The greatest news of the year!  On January 20th, Olivia decided she wants to be baptized.  She was soooo excited.  I think on the day she made her decision, she was more excited for the baptism than she was for Christmas morning.  I can't wait for the special day this spring!