Four years ago today, on October 19th, Summer made a decision to follow Jesus Christ as her Lord and she has not turned back! I have seen the fruit in her life in her conscience, her love for the Bible, and her desire to tell others about the Good News. I have loved watching her grow in her faith through her daily Bible reading, memorization, church, and conversations and questions. I am so grateful for all that God is doing in her life!
In our family, we have a tradition of celebrating spiritual birthdays in three ways. First, that person gets to pick and cook dinner for the family, serving the family. Second, that person receives one gift that will further their spiritual growth, such as a new Bible or aid to studying the Bible. Finally, at dinner, we as a family read through and talk about the blog posts I have written about their decision for Christ as well as their faith journey since then as we together celebrate what God has done and is doing in their lives.
Here are some pictures showing how we celebrated Summer's spiritual birthday today.
Summer found her recipes, listed her ingredients, and then organized them by where they are found in the store. She then pushed the cart and gathered in her ingredients. She LOVES feeling independent!
For the first year, Summer cut up her ENTIRE fruit salad with no help from mom. It took her about 2 hours, but she loved it!
Summer picked her birthday dessert to be dirt cups (pudding, cool whip, oreos, and gummy worms). I watched the majority of the time - she did fantastic!
She found a recipe for gummy worm punch! You freeze gummy worms and punch in a muffin tin and they become the ice cubes in the punch. It actually was really good!
She wanted to make red and white spaghetti. In her mind this represented what Jesus did for her. Seethis video for her explanation!
Video: Why Summer chose to make red and white spaghetti:
She did a fantastic job on dinner (she was in the kitchen much of the day!) and it all turned out delicious!
She had her chicken broccoli alfredo "separate" from the noodles as she always does ;)
Everyone was excited about Summer's dessert choice!
Video: Singing to Summer:
Summer's gift this year was a set of CD's learning about the "Acts of the Apostles". All the kids love listening to CD's as a way of learning more about the Bible both at home and in the van (and on long car trips!).
Happy 4th Spiritual Birthday kiddo! We are so proud of you!
Lord, I pray you would protect Summer spiritually and grow her in your ways, constantly drawing her closer to yourself. Continue to give her a desire for the things of you, for pleasing you, and for reading your Word. Please use her to glorify you, love others, and to give others hope by sharing your Good News. Give us as parents wisdom as we parent her to grow more like your son Jesus. We love her so much, but we know you love her more! Thank you for how you are working in her life. Please continue to do so! Amen!
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