2013 is in the rearview mirror...

Year 2013 is over, and I breathe a sigh of relief.  It was a year of turmoil, change, and well struggle.  As rough as it was it was a blessing as it worked on the hearts, minds and souls of those in our family.  I thought it was just for my growth and soul searching, but to my joy discovered it was also a year of God working out His will in our youngest Abigail.  Ever since Easter of 2013 she has been asking questions about God and Jesus...and I could see at times she was really thinking about song lyrics from church or the Christian radio I play in my car.  She would sing a phrase over and over again and then ask me about what it meant.  It has been on and off again, so I never really paid that much attention to where this might be heading.  Well this past Tuesday night she came up to me at bedtime and said, "Mom I've got an important thing to tell you."  She does this fairly often and I knew some big question was probably coming.  Just how big is was blew me away though.

"When can I ask Jesus into my heart?"

And my mother heart stilled and about stopped.  I quickly set aside my laptop and pulled out my Bible.  We talked about Christmas and Easter and how both those holidays were gifts to us.  Christmas being God's gift of His Son Jesus, and Easter being Jesus' gift of his life.  And we talked about how we needed both of those gifts so that we could have a personal relationship with God again, since the Sin of Eve and Adam ruined God's perfect plan in the very beginning.  We talked about how much God loves us, and Jesus loves us.  We talked about personal sin and how it separates us from God and how we must confess that sin and ask Jesus to come into our hearts and clean it up.   Abby is our thinker and she feels very deeply because of this.  It didn't take long for the tears to well up as the enormity of God's love and sacrifice and Jesus's love and sacrifice dawned on her.  And sweet little Abigail opened her heart up wide to Jesus and asked him to forgive her sins and come into her heart.  It was a precious moment.
Now both of our girls have Jesus in their hearts, and it was even sweeter to see big sister Miriam rejoice and get excited over Abby's decision.  We of course had cake and ice cream to celebrate (even though they had brushed teeth already).  Below is a picture of Abby halfway through her special late night treat...

What a wonderful way to start a new year!!!!