Cultivating A Heart for Jesus in Brayden

It is so important to me that Brayden grows up with a love for Jesus in his heart. I am so grateful to my mom for always displaying God's love throughout my life. (I type this as my child cries in his room because he doesn't want to go to sleep tonight. I feel a little hypocritical. ;))

Our pastor shared something on Father's Day (I think) & it was so eye opening to me. I had never thought about it before. He said you can't take anything with you to Heaven except for your children. Wow! Let that sink in! I want to make absolutely sure I do everything in this life to ensure Brayden (& any future children) spend eternity with me and Jesus. He also said that while it's important to show them how to strive for excellence academically and it's important to help them hone in on any athletic abilities they have, the most important thing to focus on is their spiritual lives and their love for God. What a great reminder that as he gets older, I should always remember to focus more on his relationship with his Heavenly Father than what grades he brings home or what extracurricular sports he participates in. Those things are important, but in the grand scheme of things they don't matter.

*Sidenote: He just came out of his room and told his daddy that he didn't get any loving from his baby girl mommy. I'm telling you, this kid is hilarious and really knows how to turn it on when he needs to. I'm sorry. Clearly I can't write posts until he is completely asleep.*

Obviously, one of the most important parts of teaching Bray about Jesus is leading by example and I feel like I'm not doing a very good job in this area. The main areas I need to work on are having love/compassion for other people and to stop being so judgmental. It is totally up to us as his parents to show him what's wrong and right. I really want to start doing some things with him to help him learn what showing love to other people is all about.

I pray that he'll have a group of close friends that he grows up in church with. I honestly believe that was one of the most effective aspects of my youth years. I had a core group of girls who were at church every time the doors were open praising God and we actually wanted to stay on the straight and narrow. I hardly dealt with peer pressure at all because of the people I surrounded myself with. That's what I want for Brayden.

I can not imagine spending eternity without my baby boy. I love him so much and I cannot imagine Heaven without him there. Sometimes, I wish God would go ahead and come get us now so I won't have to worry about Brayden growing up in this terrible world and so I'll know for sure he's going with me.

I can only pray that I'll do my part to show him the love of Jesus and teach him how to do his part to show the love of Jesus to others.