The Tommerdahls: Colton Spiritual Birthday

I have been SO blessed watching the Holy Spirit working in Colton's life, as he is so tender towards God's ways. I can try to instruct Colton's actions, but only God can mold Colton's heart and motives, and I am SO grateful that He is! Colton truly wants to obey God and be who God wants him to be. Colton has a string of 5-6 regular prayer requests for himself as he desires to grow more Christ-like in his actions, and I have seen God answering those prayers! He is fighting his natural sinful tendencies with prayer, and is truly repentant when he makes a mistake. He has grown so much in his servant heart, both at school and especially in regards to his sisters. He has desired and prayed for boldness at school in his faith and was so excited to share with me the day when his buddy joined him in praying before they ate lunch, and now it is a routine for them to take turns thanking God for their food together! I have loved watching how God uses Colton's silly, fun, confident personality that draws kids into friendship, and how several of his guy friends are so excited to come with him to Wednesday night Clubs at our church to learn more about God's love for them. I love watching how Colton truly listens from the heart to his Bible reading and devotions each morning and how he takes his Bible memory verses to heart - I see the impact it makes on his actions both at home and at school. I am so thankful for our church, who regularly teaches truth to Colton! I am so grateful for God's Holy Spirit living in Colton, as I watch him distinguish truth from untruth on things that he hears, and for His constant protection over Colton's life. I am so proud of the boy Colton is growing into, and I pray the Lord continue to bless and teach him, and grow his faith and his love for others! And so, it was with GREAT excitement that we celebrated Colton's FOURTH spiritual birthday, the day that Colton committed his life to Jesus. Our celebration for Colton's decision had three parts:

1) MEAL: Colton picked and cooked a meal for the family.
2) REMEMBERING: We read/listened to the blog post/video of Colton's spiritual journey and decision as a family
3) GIFT: He received one gift to encourage him in growing in his faith

Meal

Colton's spiritual birthday fell on a Saturday this year, so after much deliberation and DAYS of looking at various recipes, he chose to make the family breakfast! He got up when everyone else was still in bed and quietly "woke" me to come help him in the kitchen :). He chose to make Neapolitan waffles, bacon, scrambled eggs, and fruit. He also chose a special dessert, hot chocolate mug cakes!

He mixed the waffle mix as normal....

But added melted chocolate chips to a third, strawberry preserves to a third (along with red food coloring), and vanilla flavoring to a third.

The dessert he chose, he made entirely by himself, adding each of the above ingredients to five separate mugs, to make hot chocolate mug cakes!

He added marshmallows, whip cream, and chocolate syrup to the top :)

Happy 4th spiritual birthday, buddy!

Remembering

We love looking back and remembering how God worked (and is still working) in Colton's life on his spiritual birthday. Click here for the link to the blog post we read together as a family, rejoicing at how God drew Colton to himself. I love this video, taken discreetly so he didn't know at the time, hearing his little voice talking to God...and how his faith has continued to grow so much! (More videos and his story leading up to this video found at the above link).

Gift

This year we chose for Colton volume 2 of the Bible in "Your Story Hour" CD's, which he loves listening to. Between Summer and Colton, they own Acts of the Apostles, the Gospels, and the the beginning books of the Bible, and they have LOVED listening to these while they get ready for school, do chores, or before bed, both together or individually. Both Summer and Colton eat up these dramatized stories straight from the Bible. The volume we gave Colton for his spiritual birthday has many stories about King David and adventures before, during, and after his reign. He was really excited!