A Note From the Teacher...

I got an email from Josiah's music teacher today. As I read it to Josiah I started to cry a little and he asked, "Mom, why are you crying?" and I told him, "because I'm just so proud of you".

Here is the note:

I am just writing to tell you what a joy Josiah is to have in class! He comes in smiling every day and is always attentive. He adds so much to our classroom discussions and never is shy to make an educated guess. He will be receiving a special note from me tomorrow but I thought I would share with you. Thanks for “growing” a wonderful person!

Last night we had Missional Community at our house. One of the things that we discussed was why do we seek after God. I mentioned that oftentimes my motivation is simply obedience...I'm not always seeking after Him with the right motives, with a heart that's passionate, or for any reason other than to obey. In our house we talk about how "good choices have good consequences and bad choices have bad consequences", sometimes I follow after Him simply because I hope that making a good choice will have a good consequence...that's not always true, and my motivation is lacking.

Later Dan asked Josiah why does he obey US and after thinking about it for a while he said, "because I don't want to be disciplined" -- sound familiar?? Similar to my motivation to seek after God. During prayer requests, he asked for prayer that he would seek to be obedient to us because he knows that's what God calls him to do, not because he doesn't want to be disciplined. As I watch and listen to him, I'm so thankful that God allowed us the privilege of raising him. He's not perfect and like his parents, he will always have sin issues that he struggles with, but I'm thankful that his heart has a desire to seek after what God wants for him.

After reading the letter today, and crying as I read it to Josiah, we talked about how he's already choosing to obey us because that's what God calls him to. At school I can't always see him, but others do and he's a light for them even when we aren't there. We are so proud of you Josiah and I don't doubt that the Lord has great things in store for you.