HE WANTS TO "LIVE GOOD"

For the past several weeks our small group has been praying for one person from the group all week and then fasting together on Wednesdays. We're done with the adults and now are praying for one of the children in the group, and this week is our son's week. When he was asked how we can be praying for him this week, he told the group,

"I want to live good."

I thought I misheard him because I have never heard him really say something like that, so I asked him to repeat it and he said again, "I want to live good."

He also said he wants to play and be safe and have a good week. All very age-appropriate. But back at our house, as I was tucking him into bed, I asked him again how I can be praying specifically for him, and he said,

"I just really want to live good."

Correct grammar aside, I thought his request was beautiful....and pure. Especially in light of the video the adults had just watched--a Francis Chan teaching on Philippians 1:27:

LIVE YOUR LIFE IN A MANNER WORTHY OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.

It was all about the discrepancy between the way we often live in light of the worthiness of the gospel of Christ. I just sat there downstairs, challenged by this truth while my children played upstairs. And then to have my son come downstairs and share his request, and have it be about the way he lives...Well, I was challenged once again.

Because I really want to "live good" too. I mean, don't you? I don't want some big discrepancy between what I believe and the life that I live. I want things to line up and be worthy of what was laid down for me.

And I want it for my kids, too. Honest to goodness, it wakes me up at night and it keeps me up at night. And if someone were to be able to look ahead and tell me that my kids might not live for the glory of God, I would want to go out into the middle of nowhere and scream the most ferocious, grief-stricken, anguished scream. Nothing--no hurt, no disappointment, no loss-could devastate me more. I hope for them to know and love Him, and can well indentify with 3 John 1:4: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." I truly am desperate for my descendants--the ones I hold and kiss and pray over as well as the ones I will never know--to live lives worthy of the tremendously good news of Jesus Christ. Truly, I care about my family's investment in the Kingdom of God probably more than any single thing on this earth. I think about it constantly, and pray that we are preparing our little ones for a life of loving Him.

And so I am going to pray my son's prayer request for him. But I am also going to pray that the life I live will be worthy of the gospel, so that it will be an example to a sweet, sweet boy who simply wants to "live good."