The Prompting of the Spirit

The kiddo has been struggling with fear for the past month He doesn't want to go down to his playroom (in the basement) by himself He doesn't like to go to bed at night or during naptime And so on and so forth He hasn't been able to say much beyond that what's scaring him (it ranges from shadow to noises to the wall and so forth), so we have just been doing a lot of praying with him and reminding him that Jesus is always with him and will keep him safe, even when mommy and daddy aren't in the room And that has seemed to help somewhat

Today while I was showering he wouldn't leave the bathroom Usually he will at least go play on my bed He said he was scared So I prayed with him and reminded him that Jesus was watching out for him and finished up my shower more quickly than my tired self would have done otherwise (because really, I wanted that extra five minutes under the pounding hot water this morning to try and clear out my sinuses Not to be, I guess Oh well)

When I got out of the shower I sat down with him to try and figure out if we could get at the root of the fear again with no real luck So I asked if he wanted me to remind him how to pray for Jesus to help him not be scared and we did Then he just looked at me and I felt a nudge to remind him about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and what Easter means (this has been a big conversation the past few weeks). So I did and like I usually do, I asked him if he wanted to ask Jesus into his heart Usually his answer is a firm and immediate no, to which I say ok and we move on with our day But today he said yes

So I explored a little more with him to see if he really understood what I had asked him and what it meant and he seemed to have a good understanding for his age (for example, around here, Jesus died on the cross and was raised again so that God could take us out of time out - because that's something he gets The idea of death and eternal separation from God, while something we talk about, makes less sense conceptually right now) And so we knelt on the bath mat in front of my sink and prayed, and the kiddo asked Jesus to forgive him for his sin and to come live in his heart and be his Savior

I worry some that he's so young that he doesn't really get it But talking to him, he does in fact seem to and I've been analyzing my responses to him and I don't think I did anything today differently that would be coercive and thus change his answer from the usual emphatic no to a yes And I hadn't actually planned to bring salvation up, but I just felt like I should So I am thinking that the Holy Spirit has been at work in his heart. It was a glorious way to start the day

(I apologize for the lack of punctuation - I'm on my netbook, which you might recall is having issues with its period key, but I had the time to share and wanted to get this written up while I could)