Chinese New Year and God's Faithfulness in the heart of Faith

Education...well, that is a topic that we all have opinions and convictions about.  When we decided to move to California we were a little nervous about putting our children in public school.  You hear so many negative things on the news about "California."  However, Jim and I were very convinced that the Lord wanted our children to be in public school.  We felt the strong conviction of how are our kids going to be able to live out their faith in the real world if they have never been there?  This was hard because we don't want "the world" to "corrupt" our kids.  So we had to trust that God knew what He was doing in spite of our reservations.

Today the Lord showed His unfailing faithfulness to me while doing homework with Faith.  Her class has been studying the Chinese New Year for the month of January.  When I got her homework, it told of their beliefs, gods, and superstitions.  I thought, "Oh no...this is the influence that I was so worried about!"  As many of you know, we have encountered a lot of spiritual attacks since we have been here.  We have seen people truly demonized and it has definitely put a new category in our faith box.  We have seen the power and influence of Chinese ritual and worship of their gods manifested in unbelievers and believers and the horrible struggles that they have faced.  Now some of you may be thinking we have gone all wacky and such but until you see the enemy for yourself, you cannot comprehend his influence.  So, back to the homework.  As Faith and I studied about the do's and don'ts of Chinese New Year we began to talk about our faith and what we believed.  One thing the Chinese believe is that if you behave properly, then their ancestors and mythical gods will grant them fortune and good luck in the coming year.  Faith's first reaction was, "Mommy how sad is it that they think they can "earn" good things by just being good."  "I am glad that I know Jesus and I didn't do anything to deserve good things, He just gives them to me because He loves me."  Out of the mouths of babes!!!!  I was completely blown away at her observation!  The other things they do to earn good fortune and good luck seemed to be so silly to her.  She felt sad for the Chinese people. It was obvious that she has been processing all of this for a month.  She shared that one lady came in to talk about Chinese New Year since she herself was Chinese and grew up in China.  Faith said she listened and thought it was all interesting.  But before the speaker left, Faith approached her and asked her if she believed in God.  The guest responded that she was not sure and Faith told her that she did and that He loves her very much!  Wow!  My daughter was witnessing right there in her classroom!!!

I cannot tell you how my heart sang out to the Lord in thankfulness and praise.  Sometimes all parents wonder if our kids ever "get it" and that it just goes in one ear and out the other.  Today the Lord showed me that His hand and favor is on our sweet little Faith and that she is His.  I know that as she grows older more and more things will conflict with her faith.  We have to continually trust that our Sovereign God will walk with her through all of them.