Moriyah's encounter with the Lord

This is a long overdue post about my sweet Moriyah.  On August 8th of this year, her little life was changed in the sweetest way.  At our church they were having a movie night and Moriyah couldn't wait to go.  I'm not the biggest fan of christian movies because of the cheese-ball productions BUT seeing her so pumped up about watching it, I couldn't help but take her in.  It was about people encountering Jesus and how they responded to Him.  Close to the end of the movie I had to walk out because my son was getting a bit loud but Mo wanted to stay in and watch by herself in the back.  I was in the foyer with the boy and watched it from the screens.  At the end of the movie they asked that if you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus and you wanted to, to raise your hand.  Now, ever since she with able to raise her hand, she has raised it for every alter call.  She has such a sensitive heart.  Knowing that about her I knew she would raise her hand even though I wasn't in the room with her.  Sure enough, the movie ends and out comes my 7 year old holding all our stuff, walking out the sanctuary doors, with the biggest and most beautiful smile on her face.  She walks right up to me and says, "I raised my hand!" and then hugs me and starts sobbing.  I kept trying to ask her why she was crying but she couldn't stop long enough to speak.  There was a crowd of people all around so I grabbed her hand and walked to pick up my other kiddo and then took her to a room that we could talk.

While my littlest ones played, Moriyah and I sat on the floor.  It was finally quiet. She still couldn't stop crying and wiping her eyes. The little faucet to her tears was on full blast. I love her. I held her till she stopped and then I asked her if she really wanted a relationship with Jesus and for Him to be the Lord of her life and to live in obedience to Him. She said yes and then asked why she couldn't stop crying. I told her that when Jesus comes into your heart and life that it can be so overwhelming that you can't help but cry.  He comes in and it overflows into coming out in our tears.  I told her that Mommy and Daddy cry all the time with how wonderful the Lord is in our lives.  Worship does that to me all the time.  He is overwhelming.

After talking for awhile, we prayed together that the roots that were started tonight would deepen and grow and that the Lord would use her for His glory.  If God used King Josiah at 8 years old, then God can use my Moriyah at 7 years old!It was such an unexpected and amazing night!  It wasn't a mega concert. It wasn't a powerful speaker. It wasn't fire falling from the sky. It wasn't even the cheeser movie. My girl encountered Jesus and He changed her heart. It's been amazing since that night watching her grow in Him. I've homeschooled her since kindergarten and her hardest subject was reading. She would get SO frustrated and just wanted to guess everything. It was difficult for me as her teacher and difficult for her as the student. All that is to say that since that night, she has fallen in love with reading!  She always packs a book with her everywhere she goes (her Grandpa David would be so proud!) and she reads all day long.  It just clicked as if the Lord imparted this sweet ability to now have patience and joy in the reading process. Her very favorite thing to read is the Bible. She reads it in the morning, afternoon and before bed and she talks about it all the time.  It blows my mind because on August 7th she hated reading and on August 8th she began her love for reading and for the Word!The other day, she was reading in her bed in the morning and then came downstairs and said she was reading in Leviticus and how cool of a book it was! LEVITICUS! Tony asked if she would read to us while he cooked breakfast. It was all about the sacrifices and offerings and she peeks down the page and says, "Sin offerings are next! I can't wait to read about that!" Tony and her had the sweetest talk about it all (Tony was so pumped!) and then she asked if they could talk more about it that night.

This has truly been an amazing thing to watch.  It's what I've prayed for all my children, even before I ever had babies.  I want my kids to have a genuine relationship with Jesus. Not a hand-me-down faith in Jesus because they were raised in the church, but a real life, all out, hands down, never going back, faith in Jesus.

Moriyah really and truly met the Lord on August 8th, 2012.  He has been changing her ever since. As a Mom, it's just the most beautiful thing to behold.  My prayer for her is that the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of sin wouldn't have any hold on her life to distract her from love for Jesus.  Her name means "chosen of God" or "taught by God" and both are so true.