As most of my family and friends know, my husband sometimes works odd hours which makes it difficult for me to sleep some nights. Well Saturday night was one of those nights; he had to work late which made it super difficult for me to sleep that night. So I did what I do best (being a night owl and all) by staying up multitasking with watching bits and pieces of whatever was on TV and working on photo's with my laptop. (In case you didn't know I am taking Professional Photography classes one on one with a Photography Instructor who is every so patient with me, but also tells me like it is as well as practicing and learning other Photography techniques and Photoshop CS4). So with both of these task that interchange well with one another I can stay pretty busy most nights that my hubby is called to work.
Now, where was I? Okay so my hubby worked Saturday night and knowing that he'd be too exhausted to attend Sunday School and Service I was determined to make it to Church with just myself, daughter, and son. Problem was I didn't fall asleep until approx. 3-4 AM, which made it extremely difficult for me to wake up Sunday morning for church. Everything in me wanted to just stay home but I knew if I didn't go for myself that I at least needed to be a good example for my children and attend. I lay there in bed while drifting back to sleep but praying in my mind asking the Lord to please help me find the energy and strength to get the day started RIGHT. Of course and as always, The Holy Spirit gives me that strength but in a rather unusual way. Our just turned 6 year old daughter entered our bedroom fully dressed with pink sock in hand filled with coins from her piggy bank. She said 'Mom, we're ready to go to church and I put money from my piggy bank into my sock and my brothers sock to give to God. Are you ready to go mom?' Of course I slurped up
my drool a drink of water and tried to get my eyelids open, but it did do the 'trick'. I knew that
I knew I had to get up and
fast. Since my kids were basically dressed all I mainly had to do was make their breakfast, remind them to brush their teeth and do both of their hairs; well and also rush to get my own self dressed and ready.
So with kids and coins stuffed down thier socks in tow we made it to church just 10 min. late for Sunday School. My daughter's Children's Church wasn't scheduled that day so she sat with me in 'big' Church while my son stayed in his designated room.
My daughter was restless during Sunday School, which was an awesome lesson by the way, but as soon as it was over she was ecstatic and eager to give her offering to God. She walked up to our Pastor before church began and said 'Here, this is my money for God.' He looked down at her and basically told her nicely that when the 'plate' passes to put it in there and it will be used for God's glory.
Little did we know that during the service, right before the time to collect the tithes and offerings, our Pastor, Mark Redd, was sharing how a little girl had just made the decision to accept Christ into her heart, and then he proceeded to say he wanted to share something else with the congregation. His exact words aren't memorized by me but it was something like 'This morning a little girl came up to me and gave me something from her heart...." 'Ms. Jewel', 'Ms. Jewel', where are you at?" It dawned on me that he was talking about
my Jewel. Well wouldn't you know it that 'Ms. Jewel' wanted to be on the upstairs portion of the Church so I allowed that, so when Pastor called her he was searching for her where my husband and I typically sit; always on the ground level. Finally I stood up and quickly walked 'Ms. Jewel' over to the stairs and told her to quickly walk/run down them and go up to our Pastor while he was still calling her. She was a little apprehensive walking so far away from me, but brave at the same time. I stayed standing at the top of the stairs and she made certain to turn around and make sure I was still there more than once. I was. :D
Pastor Redd got down to her level in front of the congregation and talked to the church saying 'This morning 'Ms. Jewel' walked up to me and told me that she had something to give....', then he looked at her and asked her in the microphone 'Ms. Jewel, remember when you walked up to me this morning with this, this, uh envelope (I think he was perplexed because at first it was in a pink sock but later 'Ms. Jewel' decided she didn't want to give God a semi dirty sock so we quickly tried to lay out all the coins totalling $1.54, on the pew and shove them in an offering enveloped; hoping that the thing wouldn't burst open.) So I believe (not sure) that's why Pastor Redd stumbled a bit when he didn't see the sock. Personally I think the sock affect would have been a bigger presentation to represent a childs mindset and thinking to store her money and present it to God, but I also think Pastor Redd probably knew that mommy made the decision that it was better kept if placed in a proper envelope (though truth be told we really were planning on just putting the whole coin with sock in the plate, but it was 'Ms. Jewel' who suddenly decided that she didn't want God to have a semi-dirty sock! lol Too cute and so sensitive to Him! I was a little more than impressed!). Pastor Redd asked 'Ms. Jewel', as he balanced around the heavy envelope of coins "Did you come up to me this morning to give this to me for God?", 'Ms. Jewel', "Yes!". "And what's in here?" 'Ms. Jewel' "Money!", "And where did you get this money from?" 'Ms. Jewel' "My Piggy Bank!". "And who do you want to give it to?" 'Ms. Jewel' "God!!", to which Pastor Redd began a small discussion to the congregation about how if a little child wants to give to the Lord, how much more should we be joyfull about it, and then of course he proceeded to joke by saying "So if you want to pour in your IRA, 401K, Savings Account...." lol.
It was a good last 7 days for 'Ms. Jewel' because not only was I proud of her for offering to God on her very own but also her Kindergarten teacher called me direct to tell me that she is doing super well and her and 2 other students are actually the higher readers in the class, she's responding better in class, and getting assignments done in a timely manner, when before she had a very hard time with this.
It just feels good when your kids are doing well and loving it. Everything seems to be going smoothly and big Jesse and I couldn't be happier! There's more to share that's happened within the past 2 weeks that have made us proud of our kids but I'll save that for another day. To God be ALL the Glory!
