Joy of a Broken Spirit
Yesterday my sweet Esther girl and I had a little bit of an issue in the morning. She had fixed her cereal and Tirzah's and sat down at the kitchen table. She told me she was going to pray for her and Tirzah. I told her just to wait a second and then pray for everyone. This began a 45 minute ordeal that ended up with both of us in tears and one REALLY soggy bowl of cereal.
She absolutely refused to pray for the whole table. This is something we have been working on with the kids. We want all of them to feel comfortable praying in public. This is something I struggle with too so we are really trying to start early with the kids. They all take turns praying before meals. Esther was defiant in her attitude and very disrespectful in her prayer. I told her that she was not allowed to eat her cereal until she prayed with respect. We had a conversation about how holy God is and how he demands and deserves our respect when we speak with him. She refused. She sat the entire time during family devotions sulking and playing with her cereal, which was getting soggier by the minute. It was basically mush. Carl talked to her. I did. Finally we just stopped talking to her and let her work this out in her own heart. She sits next to me at meals so I was watching her the whole time during devotions. At one point about halfway through devotions Carl had to stop to deal with two children who needed some encouragement to sit down. Esther leaned over to me with tears streaming down her face. It was the face of a broken spirit. She quietly told me she was ready to pray. With sobs she prayed to second sweetest prayer I have heard from her. The first being when she prayed to Christ for salvation. It was simple and quick but by the end we were both crying. We both hugged for a while and the whole time I was telling her how pleased God is with a broken spirit. We both came out of the whole situation with JOY. Such joy. It brings me such joy when my children GET IT. When they learn a truth from a God my heart rejoices. Yes, it was hard to sit there and watch her struggling, I wanted to tell her to forget the whole thing and just eat her cereal. I knew I could not. She needs to learn these hard lessons. It made me sad to watch her play with her cereal. I wanted to fix it for her but knew that the lesson she learned would be so much more sweet. Sadness but then such sweet JOY as we praised The Lord together. So yes, JOY in a broken spirit. And she ate every bite of that soggy cereal by the way.
She absolutely refused to pray for the whole table. This is something we have been working on with the kids. We want all of them to feel comfortable praying in public. This is something I struggle with too so we are really trying to start early with the kids. They all take turns praying before meals. Esther was defiant in her attitude and very disrespectful in her prayer. I told her that she was not allowed to eat her cereal until she prayed with respect. We had a conversation about how holy God is and how he demands and deserves our respect when we speak with him. She refused. She sat the entire time during family devotions sulking and playing with her cereal, which was getting soggier by the minute. It was basically mush. Carl talked to her. I did. Finally we just stopped talking to her and let her work this out in her own heart. She sits next to me at meals so I was watching her the whole time during devotions. At one point about halfway through devotions Carl had to stop to deal with two children who needed some encouragement to sit down. Esther leaned over to me with tears streaming down her face. It was the face of a broken spirit. She quietly told me she was ready to pray. With sobs she prayed to second sweetest prayer I have heard from her. The first being when she prayed to Christ for salvation. It was simple and quick but by the end we were both crying. We both hugged for a while and the whole time I was telling her how pleased God is with a broken spirit. We both came out of the whole situation with JOY. Such joy. It brings me such joy when my children GET IT. When they learn a truth from a God my heart rejoices. Yes, it was hard to sit there and watch her struggling, I wanted to tell her to forget the whole thing and just eat her cereal. I knew I could not. She needs to learn these hard lessons. It made me sad to watch her play with her cereal. I wanted to fix it for her but knew that the lesson she learned would be so much more sweet. Sadness but then such sweet JOY as we praised The Lord together. So yes, JOY in a broken spirit. And she ate every bite of that soggy cereal by the way.
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