Faith of Our...Children

Rhemagood

“Okay, everybody in the living room for a family meeting!” their dad’s voice echoed a familiar call. Nine year old Timothy and 6 year old Lydia dutifully appeared around the coffee table with their mother. Paul and Rhema’s family were used to praying for their needs. Paul began, “Your mom and I have been looking over the family finances and we want you kids to understand the situation. That way we can all pray together about it and see what the Lord will do. Right?” Everyone nodded their agreement. It was a familiar scene and no one felt afraid or worried about the future. Throughout their missionary career they had seen so many answers to prayer, simply because they had to pray for everything. God always took care of them one way or another. But now, for the hard part... Rhema put a stack of money on the table in front of the children and Lydia’s eyes got big. “Wow! We have lots of money!” she squeaked. “Yes,” her mom acknowledged, “it’s all the money we have for the whole month.” Then she put another stack on the table, a small stack of papers. “What’s that?” the little girl wanted to know, her smile fading just a bit. “I know what they are,” Timothy interjected. “They’re bills.” His voice carried an undertone that implied ‘now that I’m older I know about such evils’ . Taking the cue from her brother’s tone, Lydia exchanged her bright eyes and big smile for furrowed brows and a frown. Their mom intervened, “Actually, bills are just papers that tell us how much money we need to pay other people. For example,” she took one from the top of the pile and held it up, ”this is the electric bill. Now, some daddy somewhere had to do work to make the electricity that we use in our house. We already used the electricity, so should we pay him for his work and let him buy food and clothes for his family? Or, should we just pay him later on, like maybe next month, so we can use this money on ourselves?” Lydia’s sense of justice was immediately evident, “We should pay him! It’s not fair if we don’t.” “Of course, you’re right,” agreed her mom. “Timothy, can you take the correct amount of money from the pile and put it with this bill?” The family went through the whole little stack of papers in this way, until all the bills were properly paid. Setting those aside, there remained on the coffee table an equivalent of $4.79. The were all soberly eyeing the remnant when Paul chimed in, “...And that’s all the money we have left until next payday-- January 15th.” Ever the logical thinker, Timothy asked, “And how long is that?” Mom showed the kids their calendar-- it was presently just a few days before Christmas. Now Paul had to do the hardest part. “Kids, as you can see, it looks like our family will not be able to do anything special this year for Christmas. There is not enough money for a trip, or presents. In fact, the way things are right now, we don’t have enough to buy food.” All at once little Lydia realized what this meant, and she ‘lifted up her voice and wept’. Her mother tried to comfort her, “Honey, we’ll be okay! God always takes care of us, doesn’t He?” Through loud sobs the child explained, “I’m not crying about that! I’m crying for Timothy! I already know that my friend Sarah got me a Christmas gift, but there won’t be any presents for my Timothy!” Both parents felt their hearts warm at the little girl’s concern for her brother. Timothy, on the other hand was having quite a different reaction. “This is exciting!” he beamed. “Now God is going to have to do something really amazing for us!” He was so full of faith and confidence in his Heavenly Father! The family joined hands around the coffee table and each one took a turn praying in their own way for the situation. Paul and Rhema specifically asked for food (especially Christmas dinner) and Christmas gifts for the children. The next day, two Christmas cards arrived in the mail from overseas and they BOTH contained money! One was designated “for Christmas dinner” and the other “for gifts for the children”. None of the Christmas cards received previously had contained any money at all. The family knew that God was specifically answering their prayers. On Christmas morning, Lydia and Timothy would both have presents to open. As for the holiday meal, several missionary families were getting together for a special dinner. With the gift from the mailbox, the foursome could now bring their part to share with everyone. On Christmas Eve, an anonymous gift of about $275 appeared in an unmarked envelope in Paul’s mailbox at work. That gave them money toward the remaining month’s groceries! When the time came for the big Christmas Dinner, Lydia suddenly took ill. Paul volunteered to stay home with her so Rhema and Timothy could go. Once there, the mother and son were both completely surprised to discover that, on top of all these other blessings-- their fellow missionaries had also brought gifts for the children! When it was time to leave, Timothy needed help carrying the armfuls of gifts to the car. He was so full of joy, he looked as if he’d pop. Clearly, his loving Heavenly Father had not disappointed him. “Mom,” his little face glowed looking up at her, “wait ‘til Lydia sees THIS! This just shows you how good and loving God is. We didn’t get presents just one time on Christmas, we got them TWO times!” Indeed, God even allows difficult circumstances in order to show us His goodness. -by Rhema Good, revised October 20,2005 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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