"God Wall"

This morning I woke to an almost silent sniffle cry from my son that started in my room and began to silent the closer he got to his…at three in the morning!

After my husband sent him back to bed I felt sorry for him and although barely awake, I went after his little footsteps to see what was keeping him from sleeping. I found him sitting in his bed with the saddest little face under the shadows of the night. With a soft voice I asked what was wrong and why he wasn’t asleep.

“I’m so sad because when I got in trouble for not eating my vegetables you took all my stuff out of my room and you didn’t put my God stuff back on the wall.”

My initial response was, “IT IS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, REALLY!”

But I tried with all my might not to be so verbally callous and completely lacking sympathy. I apologized to him, not fully understanding the ramifications of my slight oversight. I kissed his sad little face, read him a story and shared a mini prayer before making my way back to bed through the quiet house.

But I wasn’t able to find myself back to sleep for some time and began to feel a bit guilty for depriving my son of his reminders of God. In the beginning, it was just a way of showcasing his preschool artwork from church in his room. One became a few and multiplied to many. Before long his room was filled. For me it was a cute placeholder for the take home sheets, but for him - it was a reminder of God. He thought of God’s love and all the things he has learned about Jesus, love and thankfulness when he looked at these items on the wall – his “God Wall.”

My mind went back to the summer he was referring to when I foolishly took his “God Wall” down in punishment due to his complete lack of respect and utter defiance when I cleared his room of everything except furniture. (If you’re interested, you can read more about my learning curve mistake by reading the post titled “Eat Your Veggies”). In desperation of trying to get him back on track with making good decisions and gaining some sort of order in our home again, I took his personal reminders of God away. Now, months later, I was seeing the error in my way.

Hours later and after gaining a little more sleep, I asked him again why he wasn’t able to sleep. I’m not sure why I expected a different answer. I guess I was hoping for a changed, less guilty response to ease the sting of the mistake I realized I’d made. To no surprise, he verified my shame by adding more detail of how I forgot to put God back in his room. Busted! Heart. Broken. (Insert thankfulness of God’s grace!)

Witnessing God work in the little heart sand souls of children is beyond inspiring and points to the amazing, majestic power of our Father. My little boy, God’s son, realized he needed a little help calling on God for help in his time of need. He struggled to follow the rules of not leaving his room until 6 am because he was unable to lean on his visual reminders of God. I’m sure my guilt intensified the situation more than the desire in his heart, but the fact still remains. Sometimes it is hard when we are weak to quiet our desires and deficiencies to lean on God’s power. No matter our stage in life, we are faced with decisions. We usually know the right one, but stumble toward making the right choice in the moment and need help such as visual reminders of God’s promising love.

This past week I was reminded how much I love to hear a room full of people audibly praying at the same time. When everyone else was praying, I looked around the room and just listened to a fraction of what God hears on a regular basis. What sounds like a collective roar of conversation, is not jumbled together in the supernatural ears of our Heavenly Father. Each prayer was heard personally by God. And not just the auditorium I was in – all over the world because people pray all the time, no matter the time. Isn’t it amazing God can decipher each of our voices, spoken or unspoken? He can recognize our heart and identify our needs, said or whispered only in our mind. He can answer the prayers of the young and old. He recognizes each language spoken to Him. There is nothing God can’t hear or understand. No one on this planet can be counted on in times of trouble like God. Our Holy Creator and all knowing Father is where we need to lean and whom we should call on in times of struggle.

Sometimes we focus a lot of energy on what seems to be big decisions - the ones that define our future and perhaps are seen by many. It is easy to get sidetracked from the small, everyday choices when our thoughts are too focused on choices disguised as grander or more important. We miss opportunities for big effect in little choices. Failing to reproduce the “God Wall” hurt my son more than any punishment should have. To be quite honest, I would have never even considered taking the “God Wall” down when removing everything from his room if I knew it held value to his budding spiritual walk. What hurts the most is I chose to ignore his little requests to have it back previous to last night because I thought I had more important and pressing things to do with my time. I did not see the value in his desire at the time. To him it was a big deal. So much so I don’t even think he knew. I had to literally be woken up to the honesty of the situation by God.

To help rectify the situation after I got the kids off to school, I put the “God Wall” back in commission. When he got home, we climbed the stairs to his bedroom. His excitement bounced up and down and was topped with a huge smile. He was happy his room was complete. He may not be able to read just yet, but the visual reminds him of the God who loves him – even when he struggles to make good choices.

Putting reminders of God for the children to see, no matter their age, inspires their personal relationship with Christ and invites God into the home.

You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. -2 Timothy 3:15-16

God, thank you for conviction and loving wake up calls bringing our attention to mistakes just as Matthew 7:3-5 teaches. Not only do you bring light to what we oversee, you show us the course to better ways. You are a good Father. Help us adapt our lives toward practicing scripture like 2 Timothy 3:15-16 in our every day lives so that our children, their children and all the children who follow will walk in your everlasting light. Thank you for Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross gifting us with grace and second chances. It is in Jesus perfect name we pray. Amen.

And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye. –Matthew 7:3-5