# 0042: Reason #7,482

I posted this on our family blog on Wednesday, September 7, 2011 and titled it "Reason #7,482":

A few weeks ago, out of the blue, my girl told me she did not want to go to heaven, she wanted to stay home with me and Dadda and her brother at our house. I told her that God and Jesus who we pray to every night would be there and that really it is the place to be. Besides, me and Dadda are planning on being there one day and we'd all really like it if she and her brother were there, too. (I didn't want to get into a whole lot of, "we'll go there when we die" stuff because then we'd have a whole new set of questions.)

I could tell she really wasn't too sold on living somewhere else. I dropped it for awhile, but then I brought it back up again at lunch and tried to explain to her that heaven is actually our real home. We'll only be here for a little while then we'll go live with Jesus in heaven forever. Somehow or another I think it became clearer to her this second time around.

All I could think was how incredibly thankful I am to have been the one there to answer that question (even if it was technically a statement). I am the one that was there to ease her concerns on this subject (a very important one) that she was confused about. There are so many parts of my day that make me grateful to be a stay-at-home mom to these kids. I couldn't begin list all the reasons (well, I could begin, but I don't know that I would ever finish until maybe the year 2028 and even then I think I would be able to continue), but this particular conversation on this particular day I will call "Reason #7,482."

I am thankful that I was there, I was available and we were not rushed. I'm also thankful for all the previous 7, 481 reasons that led to this one. Without all those, would she have even trusted me enough to ask?

Maybe not all of her questions will be as important as this one, but they might be to her at the time and I plan on being there. I'm glad to be "The Mom" and I'll send the baby-daddy a quick email saying thanks and say a prayer of thanks later, too.

Reason #7,483: One boy and one girl each hugging one of my legs while I made zucchini bread and my big girl saying, "We love you so much, Mama!"

Have you ever heard the saying, "If we don't teach our kids to follow Christ, the world will teach them not to."? I believe it. We can't entrust anyone else with the responsibility of pointing our kids to Christ. We hope and pray that they will meet people along the way that will be encouraging to them, but God gave us the responsibility first when He gave us these babies. 
I read something else the other day about how nightly prayers, attending church, daily devotions or Bible readings really aren't enough to show your child the love of God- they have to see you live it. 
I love that my kids can see me walk the walk everyday. Oh yeah, I walk the walk every day- I'm the ultimate Christ-like example. No, I'm not. I'm confident that there are better examples out there, but I'm the one that He gave these kids!