Little Blessings

It is often true that the Lord gives us little blessings to nudge our weak faith. Just last week we were upset that our ad in the paper said we had five bedrooms and two baths. When time is of the essence, you don't need an error like that to slow down interest in your house! So this week, we made sure it was correct and we added a photo, hoping to grab a little attention.On Saturday, when we opened the paper to find our house, we received one of those little blessings.
Our home was featured, in full color, on the front of the classifieds section! Both my in-laws and my own parents called us to make sure we saw it. That was most certainly a nudge to our faith that the Lord intends us to move and will help us sell our home at just the right time.Another little blessing came in the form of one of Tennyson's tiny ballerinas. At the end of one of her classes, the little girl offered her her $1.25. When she asked what this was for, the little girl told her it was for our move down to Atlanta. The little girl's mother said that it was from the girl's own money and she had insisted that she give it to Miss Tennyson. So, Tennyson is getting ready to mail that support money down to the church.That little girl is an example of why I think Children's Ministry is so important. Her faith and gift are a classic example of both "child-like faith" and "the widow's mite". G.K. Chesterton commented on the faith-filled thinking of children in his essay The Ethics of Elfland. He said, that children tend to accept things as they are without much deliberation. For example, in a fairytale, when the hero has to obtain the golden key to release the kingdom from a curse, children don't ask, "What does a key have to do with a curse?" They, instead, embrace the quest without much reasoning. That little girl needed to know only two things: 1) Miss Tennyson and her husband were on a quest and 2) they needed financial support. So she gave what she had.It is our job as parents primarily and then secondarily as a church to feed the faith of our children. There is a window of opportunity in the lives of our children that mustn't be taken for granted. We cannot wait until they come to an age where they "get it". In many cases it is then too late. We must help them "get it" before that time. We must nurture that child-like faith, because in doing so, we not only train the next generation, but we receive a blessing to our faith in return.That little ballerina is a wonderful reminder of the faith that Tennyson and I need as we make