One Who Believes, and One Who is Not Ready

As a Christian parent, if there's one thing I want more than anything in the world, one thing I pray more than anything else, it's that my kids will come to believe in Jesus. Thinking about their futures from a spiritual standpoint is always something that leaves me equally frightened and excited. Frightened because there are so many pitfalls out there. Excited to see how God will grow their sense of self and of how they have been uniquely made to serve a unique purpose towards a grand objective.

It's early, but so far we get the sense that Jada understands enough about the faith, and she buys it. She thinks the world of her Sunday School teacher, asks good questions about meaningful matters, and likes when we read the Bible every night. Of course, she's into a million other things, and is pretty flighty about all of them, so we'll have to see how deep these roots are. But so far, so good.

Aaron, as with everything else in his life, will only believe when he is ready to believe. And right now, he's not ready. When we or someone else asks him about something related to God or Jesus, he gives a firm "no." Not an antagonistic or combative "no," but a clear "no" nonetheless. We joke that the way to get him sleep is to announce that we're going to pray, since those words seem to always be followed by a yawn or a (real or fake) snoring sound. Again, he's a man of his own timetable, so no one will convince him otherwise if he doesn't himself want it.

So Amy and I continue to pray, sometimes with more fervency with other times. I'm not sure what's more terrifying to me, given how much I love my kids: how much influence we really have over the rest of their spiritual journeys, or how little influence we really have. Either way, we pray.