his own decision...

on tuesday afternoon, i asked joshua if he was ready to go to our meeting that evening. he remembered that he and i were going to "go deep". (go deep, as i mentioned in a previous post, was a meeting for kids at elevation to explore baptism.) he also remembered that it was basketball practice night. he told me he wanted to go to basketball practice and he would attend "go deep" another time. i explained to him that if he wanted to be baptized this was his chance to learn more and he had to go to this class before getting baptized.

during our conversation, he thought of different ways he could attend both and he changed his mind several times. i really wanted this decision to be his. i also felt if he made the "right" choice that it would say a lot about his decision to be baptized. we went back and forth and talked through it. it was a tough decision. he loves basketball. and jamil is his coach so they get to spend this time together.

then, i told joshua a story from my own personal life of how i had to make a hard decision last week when two important events fell on one night. momtourage (my women's book study) and movement (leadership development meeting) were both scheduled for monday night. i told him how mommy had to choose the meeting over the book study. i didn't tell him we actually cancelled momtourage because over half of us were at movement. this story really registered with him.

i told joshua i would let him think about it. i left the kitchen.

when i returned, joshua had two photo cards in front of him. both of them were from pastor and holly, pictures of their family. immediately, fearing they would get ripped or smudged or stained, i told him to put them back on the refrigerator. he said "no, mom, looking at these pictures are helping me to make my decision about the meeting tonight. i am looking at pastor steven." so i asked, "what do you think pastor steven would want you to choose, basketball or go deep?" he said, "go deep".

then i asked out of curiousity, "what do you think your daddy would want you to choose?" he said, "basketball". which this response is totally of a seven year old who loves his daddy and knows daddy loves basketball.

joshua continues to amaze me. i was shocked that he thought to look at a picture of our pastor to help make his decision. he knew what pastor would do. he knew the right decision was to choose go deep. it was a hard decision, but in the end he did choose "go deep".

thinking of how he used a picture of pastor, the leader of our church, spoke volumes to me about who Pastor is. joshua has only met and been around pastor a very few times. and when he is, joshua says little, he really just looks at him and stares. he has developed a respect for Pastor. even a seven year old little boy can identify the high calling God has on Pastor Steven's life.

moments like this really affirm to me that jamil and i aren't doing such a bad job raising this little boy to be a Godly man.

joshua will be baptized at elevation on feb. 10 at 2:30!! it is going to be an awesome day for the life of our church and also for our family.