Emma, the beautiful

Emma, Emma, Emma

Just where do I start?
This little one does so many funny things every day, I just can't keep track of them all.

Jon and I were talking about the speakers we'd heard and things we were learning from them. Emma pipes up nonchalantly saying "Mike Bickle is MY FAVORITE speaker"
"Oh?" I say "What do you like about him"

"Oh" says Emma "I like the way he sounds" and on further prompting "WHAT exactly do you like about the way he sounds" she further confirmed this truth by saying
"I don't know, I just like the way he sounds"

Her class had been listening to Mike talk about the history of IHOP during the 10th anniversary and I just figured it was lost on her.  Her class includes kids age 6-12 so it's quite the spread.  Even if she doesn't remember the stories, his voice will forever stay in her memory.

Emma is also encouraged to keep a Dream Journal through her class, and it's always interesting to get her answers.  Some of them have been Truly Profound for a 6 year old.
The other day we were talking about her dreams and she began to relay one she'd had recently.  She had had it while she was praying

She said "I was in the throne room of God and around his whole throne was water.  From that water a HUGE waterfall was falling to earth to water the oceans, seas, and rivers.  Then when it became daylight the waters stopped."

Another friend of ours whose son is in Emma's class told me a cute story yesterday.

She was in the kitchen when her son came home and called out to her a few times.  When she was able to respond to him she said jokingly "Were you afraid I was raptured  because you couldn't find me?"  To which he replied instantly "Of course not mom, we have to have the seals, the trumpets and the bowls first and THEN comes the rapture"
They've been learning about the End times in Revelation in class.  Can you tell?

Even funnier was that the mom told her husband, (who is a pastor) this story about their son to which he replied "Bowls? They aren't any bowls in Revelation!!"  To which he was proven wrong by their 10 year old son.

I love the impact that Emma's class is having on her spiritual growth.  She continues to sing constantly making up her own lyrics as she desires.  The other day I overheard her singing the following...

I want to be free
I want to be free from chains
I want to be free from homework

I guess to a 6 year old homework is bondage.

In her class they also learn alot about prayer and praying for others.  One day she was in the kitchen complaining that her ear hurt.  I kinda shrugged it off and went about my business.  The next thing I notice is her putting her hand over her ear and prayer out loud "Jesus please heal my ear, it hurts"  And then she just went about her day.  Wow, heh?

Since this outpouring of the holy spirit, i've felt it was important to have my children experience it and be exposed to the environment.  After one evening, both Jon and I had been prayed for by others after putting up our hands in response to requests from the speaker.  On leaving Emma was visibly sad.  I asked her what was the matter and she said "Nobody prayed for me"  I explained to her that the only reason people prayed for us was because we had put up our hands for something.  And we took her right up to the front in the middle of the stage with Jon and I laying our hands on her and praying for her.

The other night, she was with us again as we were praying for people around us.  After a little while she was elbowing me saying "I want to pray for somebody else" meaning not the person I was praying for.  So I told her to pick out someone to pray for.  So she walked up the stairs and looked out on the crowd and found someone with "blonde hair and a blue shirt".  So she proceeds to lead me thru the crowd to this person.  All the while I'm looking and can't find the one with this description.  So I ask her again ?Where is she?  At which point she stops by a girl with brown hair and a black shirt.  Of course she's too shy to ask if she can pray for this girl so I explain how emma had picked her out and wanted to pray for her.  The girl was so sweet and said, "wow, I came tonight wishing someone would pray for me, but I don't really need prayer for the things that they are talking about from the front"  So Emma and I prayed for this 20 something gal and then she prayed for Emma that what she's learning would be sealed in her as she returns home.

Lastly, Emma spends the afternoon in the prayer room with her class every Friday.  The other day I took her and shortly after we came, she asked if she could take communion.  "That's what we do when we come on Fridays."  I asked if she understood what it meant and she said "Of course I know, it's the Body and Blood"  so we took communion together and as I was standing beside her speaking to God in my heart she pipes up "You have to pray mom"  At which point I did.

can you tell that I'm smiling?  this has been such a fabulous experience, what a treasure to have had this time with our kids.

Rhonda