We have learned more and more how much of a friend Jesus is to us. He loves to play with us, help us find things, joke around, and be silly.
Lost toys:
Sam was pretty good at losing his toys especially baseballs, soccer balls, and various items. Notice I didn't say he still does it? Mostly because I'm trying to be prophetic and not curse him for the future. hahaha. When he was about 5 he lost his baseball somewhere and we well, were tired of looking. Benji (my husband) asked him to ask Jesus where it is. He closed his sweet little eyes and stopped for a second, opened his eyes and took off toward the bushes. Reached in and found the ball. BOOM! Legit hearing from the Lord. This launched a whole new way of parenting for us. Because really the question, "Do you remember where you had it last?" doesn't do any good. If we knew where we had it last we wouldn't have lost the item. haha. Sometimes he finds it, sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes he wants us to ask Jesus and sometimes he just wants us to find it because he was being lazy. That is when another type of tool for parenting comes in ha.
Hide and Seek:
About a year ago my kids who were then, 7 and 4 were playing hide and seek. Sam (7 year old) had a large advantage to finding hiding places through his years of wisdom from this so called game of hide and seek. Snow (4 year old) was still at the stage where she was so excited she would tell you where she was hiding. The challenge in front of us was how in the world this could work fairly.
Snow was spending an enormous amount of time looking for Sam and getting frustrated. Sam, always winning was loving the game and Snow was kinda fed up. Insert learning opportunity here. In the middle of trying to find Sam, Snow came up to me crying and worn out from the game. God gave me an idea . . . ask Jesus where Sam is. She yelled out, "He's upstairs in the closet!" In about 3 seconds Sam was found. This happened about 3 more times where Snow was hearing exactly from the Lord and we were so excited and proud of her. Then Sam was angry. "Mom, Snow is cheating! She's asking Jesus where I am and Jesus is telling her!" Bahahahahaha. Who would have ever thought that would be something a 7 year old would be angry about.
So we encouraged Sam to ask Jesus where to hide. hahaha.
I'm learning more and more that as my kids have a conflict there is such a great opportunity to partner with hearing and listening to Jesus and what He is doing or saying. I am still learning to do this myself and I super fail mostly until I get hit upside the head either by my friends or the Holy Spirit reminding me His perspective is always the right one. His perspective is way better than what we can see in front of our eyes.
Abbi Rodes
