As a parent, I am amazed to see my children display seasons of having “gotten it.” When we were in OH this last time, he had just such an episode.
The pastor and his wife had treated our family to a meal at Culver’s restaurant (an undeniable proof that good things can indeed come out of Wisconsin). The adults were at one table and our four children—the pastor’s children are all grown—sat at another table nearby. Of course, we adults were not done talking by the time the kids had finished their food, and childhood boredom began to set in. Thinking the restaurant was just like home, only bigger, the children began to get up from their seats and wander around the restaurant.
It was really no problem because there were almost no other patrons in the dining area at the time, but we as parents did do our best to try to keep them from terrorizing the establishment.
As is frequently our custom, we talked with the pastor and his wife for a quite a while—so long, in fact, that the employees of the restaurant began their nightly cleanup and shutdown procedure while we were still there. It was past time to close.
One of the ladies began going around to all the tables and cleaning them thoroughly. The salt and pepper shakers had to be gathered, the table tops had to wiped clean, the chairs had to be disinfected, the floor swept, and so forth. Upon seeing that there was work to be done, my children all rose from their seats and began helping the lady with her chores. I would like to report that their rising from their seat was due to meticulous instruction in diligence from their perfect parents, but more likely they joined in the work to escape torrential boredom.
In any event, they were soon all over the restaurant helping the lady with her work. She was quite impressed. Josiah became convicted of his need to witness to the woman during the course of his voluntary chores.
He explained to her about what Jesus did on the cross to take away the sin of the world and that a person must place their total dependence upon Christ’s work on Calvary and not their own works in order to be saved. He emphasized that a person must believe in Christ plus nothing; their sole dependence must be upon Christ alone.
As he related the story to me later, he conveyed an unseen battle about which I could not have known otherwise. He told me, “Daddy, the Devil got on my shoulder and told me that I was too young to witness to her, that she wouldn’t listen because I was so young.” It was a time not only of real spiritual warfare, but of his recognizing it for what it was. In the end, through the power of the Spirit of God, he won that battle and opened his mouth to witness for his Savior.
After the incident, we had a great talk about several things. We talked about earning the right to be heard: the reality that helping the lady work served to open her heart to what he had to say about the Gospel.
In the end, I was very proud of all of my children. It was one of the those moments where they just got it.
Paul
