The Faith of a Child by Chris Kirby

The Faith of a Child

As some of you know by now, Jill and I are expecting another baby in May.  While we are only about three months along, it is already exciting (and intimidating) to think about the way our lives will change in a big way a few months from now. 

We already have two kids who fill our house with craziness, laughs, stubbornness, feistiness, tears, and moments that are completely unexpected.  Jack and Tatum are different in a whole lot of ways, so that makes the thought of adding yet another personality to the mix a little overwhelming at times.  But, they love, and even like, each other more than I could have ever hoped for and I’m sure they are going to be fantastic siblings to our new baby.   

One of the cool things that we are witnesses of right now is how quickly Jack is learning to write, draw, and express himself more fully.  The other morning he did so in a really powerful way.  Last Friday night before bed he told us that he was going to have a “Praise Time” with his stuffed animals first thing on Saturday morning.  We thought that was a great idea.  Nothing is better than starting your day with Jesus.  A side perk is that would also mean a few extra minutes of sleep for mommy and daddy!

Well, Saturday morning Jack came and got us up first thing.  However, he did return to his room for a “Praise Time”.  During that time, he put his maturing writing/spelling skills to good work and wrote out this awesome prayer to God: 

Talk about a powerful moment for a dad.  It is so inspiring to see your five year old calling God his savior and telling him that He rocks today!   It brings me incredible joy to know that he is willing to use his abilities to honor God as they blossom and develop. 

Every time we sit down at the table, Tatum insists on praying as a family.  She sticks her little hands out for us to grab and says “bay”.  After the prayer, she gets really excited about pronouncing “me-men” very enthusiastically (unless of course she is really hungry and is already stuffing her face with mac-n-cheese).  On the nights that she’s really “spiritual”, we may go through this process 3 or 4 times in the same meal.  One night I think we prayed 6 times.  I realize that Tatum doesn’t really comprehend what we are doing, but how awesome is it that she is developing a habit that will help her love God in her life? 

My hope is that as parents, Jill and I will be able to create an environment in which our kids feel like they can constantly express their love for God in different ways and help them grow in their faith to look more and more like Jesus every day.  At the same time, I really hope that our kids’ fresh love for God and enthusiasm rubs off on us and keeps us full of life and joy for the Lord!  May we never stop growing in our Father and using what we have to honor him.