Jesus in My Heart

We talk to the girls a lot about Jesus. We try to talk about Him in the big stuff of our lives and the everyday things too. The best way we've found to explain salvation to Grace is to let her know that when we disobey God we get a big "owee" in our heart. And because we have that owee we can't be with God, but since He loves us and wants to be very close to us He gave us Jesus, and only Jesus can make her heart's owee better. And, when we ask Him to forgive us for disobeying and ask Him to come and live in our heart He does, and He takes away that owee and fills us with His love instead. Grace has thought that seemed logical for a while, but never had a moment where we knew she had really "gotten" it. We know it's important to just let her know the truth over and over (especially in the really applicable moments) and she can trust Jesus when God leads her to. We, of course, have prayed often that that would happen as soon as it could.

Last week, Grace informed me that a couple of nights before, in bed, she asked Jesus to take away her heart's owee. At first, I was skeptical, but I felt a nudge to believe her. I asked her what happened and she said, "Jesus knocked on my heart and asked if He could come in. And I said He could." I asked her what happened next, and she said, "He came inside and took away my owee, and He lives there now." I can't recall ever using the term "knocking" when I've talked to her about Jesus, and I don't think Jim ever has. She may have heard and remembered it from her devotionals at bedtime, but I feel pretty confident that I can believe her, and that Jesus really did come and knock. We're very excited that she let Him in.