"wow that is heavy"

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It was a delight to see my 5 year old son try to follow the rest of our church sing worship songs to God during our retreat this last weekend.  His reading skills are improving and it is great to see him being able to follow the rest of us. But greater still was when I realized this weekend that my son not only is reading and singing for the sake of feeling included but that he was reading and singing for comprehension.

We were singing this song yesterday:


All to Jesus I surrender; 
 all to him I freely give; 
 I will ever love and trust him, 
 in his presence daily live. 
Refrain:
 I surrender all, I surrender all, 
 all to thee, my blessed Savior, 
 I surrender all. 


2. All to Jesus I surrender; 
 humbly at his feet I bow, 
 worldly pleasures all forsaken; 
 take me, Jesus, take me now. 
 (Refrain) 

3. All to Jesus I surrender; 
 make me, Savior, wholly thine; 
 fill me with thy love and power; 
 truly know that thou art mine. 
 (Refrain) 

4. All to Jesus I surrender; 
 Lord, I give myself to thee; 
 fill me with thy love and power; 
 let thy blessing fall on me. 
 (Refrain)
Half way through I feel my 5 year old's hands pull my shirt and ask me "mommy, what does surrender mean?"

Taken aback for just a second, I prayed quickly for wisdom to know how to seize this teaching opportunity instead of shunning it off with "shhh, be quiet" for I was just about to hush my son....

"It means like when you give up everything...to give it to Jesus"

He ponders for about 3 seconds, and replies "Mom, that is really heavy for Jesus, right?"

Amazed at the depth of thinking, I can only reply "yes, I suppose it is!  But, Jesus is powerful enough to carry all that! Right?"

He then points assertively to the screen and says "yes, mom..see?  the song says POWER...right?"

The entire thing lasted no more than 2 minutes.  But what a reminder of the weight Jesus carried for us, of His amazing power to release us, and of never belittling our kids and the Holy Spirit's ability to speak to them as well.

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