How Ed our son got saved

As my wife and I drove home in
the early hours of the first day of this New Year from a memorable Watch Night Service at Four
Square Gospel Church Asokoro in Abuja; our sweet chit-chat majored on two
topics that caught our fancy at that moment; aging and our sons.

We both spot gray hairs and they
overtly draw attention to our ages which we joke about a lot. But we amused
ourselves for longer on that drive with the fact that both boys will become
teenagers this decade. We laughed with some measured enthusiasm though,
imagining our life together with the boys in their teens.

Someone said “Mothers of
teenagers know why animals eat their young because raising teenagers in this
age is one of the toughest duties ever.” It’s a full time job for two
people (Mom and Dad) with daily assistance from Jesus; without whom, success is
not guaranteed. Sadly, we have many singles and married sincerely struggling
alone.

“Lord Jesus, may our children
love and serve you more than we ever dared or dreamt may they see enough of
You in us to desire You for themselves” had been our prayers for them even
before they were born.

So, my dear wife called me last
week while I was away in Jos, learning lessons on parenting among others and
said, “Guess what Darl?!”

“What?”

“Ed just gave his life to
Jesus!”

“What happened, how did it
happen?”

The excitement in her voice and my
attempt to visualize the scenario forced tears of joy down my eyes as I
listened to her tell what happened.

While Ed and his younger brother Othniel
were watching cartoons on TV, Mom asked them to change the channel because the
night before, Othniel had a nightmare which she related to the horror cartoons
the children were being exposed to on TV. As Ed flipped through the channels Mom asked him
to stop at TBN.

The movie Escape from
Hell was showing on TBN and it was nearing the end. It was at the point Eric, the star actor, learned the truth about life after death. This part of
the movie touched Ed so much he asked Mom, “Does it mean that if someone
is good they may still go to hell?”

“Yes, unless you are born
again, you’ll not enter the Kingdom of God. Our good deeds are not good enough
for God. Only Jesus’ goodness is good enough for God. That’s why God wants
everyone to receive Jesus and be saved from Hell fire.”

To her surprise, Ed began to cry
and she promptly expounded scriptures to him explaining the meaning of
salvation by faith and grace, as against good works. She ended by
asking, “Do you want to give your life to Jesus now?”

“Yes Mommy.” And they
prayed.

He’ll be 10 in May and that excites
him greatly. But he has no idea how this one decision excites us and has
changed the dynamics of our home and his life. A journey has begun for our son,
one that’s undoubtedly the greatest for all humans.

Isn’t he too young for this? Does he understand what he did? No one can fully understand what they’re doing or why they’ve done it, when surrendering to Jesus. Those who change their minds afterward also don’t understand what they’ve done. As for Ed, he has started well and with
dedicated discipleship, focus and God’s mercies, we’ll all make the finish line with joy.

Please don’t be fooled into
thinking your children are saved because they follow you to church, recite
scriptures and perform some roles on special church programs. Be sure their
words and their life are as neatly set as yours is in Christ.

It can be complicated for them
and calamitous for us if our lives fail to communicate the love and life of the
Savior we claim to follow. The best thing we can give our children is not just
the knowledge of the love of God, but the opportunity to see that love in
action with our lifestyle.

Please pray for that moment
of decision for your children, work towards it and look forward to it. May we or someone that
could help, never miss that moment when it arrives. If you’ve already missed the opportunity to celebrate the salvation of your children before they left home, I sympathize with you. May Abba meet them among the living on His terms in time to come.