Easter

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter. We had a great time eating, finding eggs with Jerek, eating some more, playing cards, and even cleaning up over at my mom's house. It was a nice and relaxing time and I was glad to be able to spend it with family that loves and cares about us.

Yesterday morning we went to church early. Jason had to play drums for worship team and I was teaching the 3-kindergarten class. Jerek loves to listen and watch his Daddy play and so I let him run around the sanctuary in the morning. We have the same discussion every time, though, "Jerek there are only two rules, DO NOT GO ON THE STAGE! and you must listen to Mommy the very first time." He normally does really well, until the last five or ten minutes. Then, he runs as fast as his little legs will carry him, up the ramp, and tries to get on the stage. It is so frustrating for me, especially when he diverts himself early on and stops himself from going up. But it seems to never fail, towards the very end of practice he will try to get on stage. The same thing happened yesterday morning. So, I told him, "Jerek, honey, Mommy said not to go on the stage or we would have to stop listening to Daddy. Because you went up there we now have to leave and you will have to go in time out." He started crying and out we went, into a classroom. I made him stand in time out and he promptly said, "I sorwy Mommy." I told him thank you but he still had to finish time out. My new thing is that when we are done with time out and have talked about why he had to go in time out, we then pray and ask Jesus to forgive him for not listening to Mommy (or whatever the offense is) and then we tell Jesus that we love him and we know that he still loves us. As we prayed together, I was overcome with emotion. Here was my little 2 year old son, praying for forgiveness, to a Savior he doesn't fully understand yet, on the holiday that celebrates His death and resurrection and his conquer over sin. It is that trust and faith that Jesus calls us to have, like a little child:

Matthew 18:1-4 (NIV)

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

We end every prayer with, "I love you Jesus!" and yesterday morning I said it with just as much earnestness and gusto as Jerek; seeing just a glimpse of what Jesus was trying to explain to us as he taught his disciples.