40 days of prayer for America

It's now 37 days until the election. Three days ago, the campaign "40 days of prayer for America" began. You can find them at this website or link to them on facebook at this site.

"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."                           ~2 Chronicles 7:14

This is the premise on which this campaign was started. The promise is very easy to see. The audience to which he is speaking is easy to see as well. So many times, those of use who consider ourselves "His children" point our fingers at the culture and say "They are the problem." But God isn't expecting anything from them! We are the ones accountable. We are the ones who have been given the truth and have rejected it by compromising, not speaking boldly in love, sitting back and enjoying our comfortable life. We haven't served like Jesus served. We haven't loved like Jesus loved. We haven't sacrificed like Jesus sacrificed. The Christian life isn't a call to Easy Street. Jesus says that we must deny ourselves and take up our cross daily and follow him. (Luke 9:23) That's not what most of us do.

This cuts deep. Believe me. I'm right there with everyone else--not denying myself or taking up my cross! It's gotten easy to spout off our theological knowledge, sound good in Bible study and "work real hard" to do the right things.

For decades now, Christians have sat back and let the culture disintegrate before their very eyes. We sit in our beautiful churches on our comfortable pews or in our Bible studies with desserts and coffee--talking theology about how we should be salt and light, what we can do to make a difference, and discuss WWJD??

All the while there are hurting people. People walking right outside our churches--afraid to darken the doors because of the judgement they've felt there. People who are physically hungry, with no place to call home. People who have real hurts and real troubles. Some of them are actually sitting right there in our pews and Bible studies. And we usually don't even take the time to notice--and we don't want to notice because it's messy. Real life is messy. Real life sucks sometimes. Real life is hard and sad and unlovely a lot of the time! That's why as Christians, we can look forward to the wonderful promise of life eternal with Jesus!!

But that's not what this post was supposed to be about. If we look inside of our hearts, we know that we have left our first love. We may come back to him now and again, but on a day to day basis, most of us don't remember what it's like to really be in love with Jesus. And that's our call--to love him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. If we aren't doing that everyday, then this verse is for us--to humble ourselves and pray, seek his face, turn from our wicked ways.....

When we do that, he makes a promise. And God always keeps his promises. He will hear us from heaven, forgive our sin and heal our land. Wow! Do we need that??? And look, it has nothing to do with the unbelievers!! There's no conditions about them. We don't need to change them or get them to live "right." We don't need to change their views on gay marriage or even abortion. We don't need them to think the same way about the economy or war that we do. We don't have to worry about any of that. We won't change our land through laws or a different Commander in Chief.

Only Jesus can heal our land.

And all we have to do is pray--repent, turn from our wicked ways. We need to return to our first love and live like he lived, serve like he served, sacrifice like he sacrificed. Why? To earn God's affection? To make ourselves good enough to deserve our land to be healed and our sins to be forgiven? NO! If that was the case, we'd be in sad shape for sure! God calls us into relationship with him. That's what he desires. He wants us to recognize our need for him. He knows that the only way we will have true joy is to love him first, to put all of our hope and trust in him alone because everyone and everything else will fail. He commands to be the ONLY God. He commands that we have NO other idols. We have a lot of idols in America. I'm pretty sure he was thinking of modern day America (as well as Israel) when we was directing the author to write this.

So no matter what your political preference--if you are a child of God, I'm sure you're concerned about the state of our country. These 40 days of prayer are nothing about a certain candidate or political party. They are a calling of the Christians in our nation to turn back to their first love. Please join me and thousands of other Christians around the country in praying specifically for these things over the next days until the election--and beyond!

I believe with all my heart that God set the leader of our country where he is. I believe just as firmly that he has planned and set the next president as well. Personally, I don't think I can change that with my prayers. I believe these prayers are for the hearts of God's children. All we can do is open our own hearts, repent of our own sin, and seek his face ourselves. He will handle the land. He will control the leadership. He uses Christians and non-Christians alike to fulfill his purpose. So I can rest in the sovereignty of my Lord. I will do my part and vote for the people that I think will be most likely to carry out and represent my beliefs and values. And that's all I can do besides pray. And pray I will.

I encourage you to do the same.....

Silence

Silence.....

I feel like this word describes my summer. I've been mostly silent on my blog. That wasn't my plan. I thought summer would be a great time to write, but here it is coming to the end of July, and I've only written seven posts all summer. Several of those were just recipes or songs. I have wanted to write, and yet I feel like God has kept me silent. I haven't been overly busy. Don't get me wrong, I haven't been bored or sitting around twiddling my thumbs! I've cleaned my house, done my laundry, shuttled children back and forth to various activities, etc.

I also feel like it describes my summer in another way..... God's silence. I've actually felt this since last November but more so in recent weeks. That's probably another reason I haven't written anything. I haven't felt too much inspiration. But am I right in this? Is my reasoning correct? Or do I need another prospective?

One thing that I have just begun is a new Bible study last week at church. It's only been two weeks into it, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it. If any of you are PCA (or even if you aren't) I would say "GO TO THE PCA WOMENS' CONFERENCE IN OCTOBER!!" It will be worth it. The keynote speaker is Nancy Guthrie, and she's the author of the Bible study I've started, "Hoping for Something Better." I read her first book, "Holding on to Hope," last year. It's a loose study on the book of Job. It's her heart wrenching story of love and loss. I'm not going to share it here, but believe me you will be blessed by reading it. This second book is more of a true Bible study that goes deeper and makes me think harder than anything has for me in a long time.

Nancy spoke right to my heart last week in chapter one when she said this,

"Sometimes our feelings may tell us that God is silent. But when we complain that God is silent, when we're straining to hear the voice of God, what we are really saying is that we exhausted this final decisive Word he has spoken to us in the person of Jesus and in the pages of Scripture. It's as if we are saying the Bible has nothing further to say to us, that we've seen all there is to see in Jesus and heard all there is to hear in the gospel, that it has no power to speak into our current situations."

WOW! Is this what I'm saying? Certainly not intellectually or consciously, but when I think about it, that is exactly what my attitude is saying. I've heard so many people say over the years that God has been silent in their life for a certain period of time that it just seems to be a normal thing. But thinking about it this way makes sense. We have God's word that is living and active and able to speak to us every time we read it. We have a God who is waiting anxiously to hear from us, to answer our call, to comfort us in our sorrow. How could I think he's silent? It's not him. It's me.

In this time of "silence" I have been waiting. Some of you know about this. Others don't. I've shared a little on here, but I know it's been vague. I haven't been ready for a bombardment of questions in my life so I just share basic, vague information about what's going on. But I'm still waiting. I've felt like my life was on hold for months--not knowing what to plan for, how involved to be in activities, how to live day by day not knowing what the future holds. I try. I really do. And most of the time I do a pretty good job of it. I do put my trust in the Lord. I do put my hope in him. He is my rock and fortress. I know these things, and I cling to them. I cling to his promise to never leave me or forsake me. And I remember my blessings and how amazingly blessed I am. I remember that things could be so much worse. I remember that we have our health and that my husband and my children know Jesus. What more could I really be concerned about? And yet I am. I don't like living in uncertainty. I don't know many people who do. I happen to be perfectly fine with change. I am really okay with the thought of moving. I wasn't three months ago. But I am now. I'm okay with new friends, new church, new town, total strangers, etc. I can get pretty excited about newness actually, but it's the "not knowing" that makes it hard. It's the "not knowing" where we're going (or even if we're going.) If we do go, will there be a good church and will there be any sort of homeschooling community? Will there be good friends for my children?  These things keep me in constant communion with my Father in heaven--continually giving it to him. And maybe that's the point anyway.....

But I'd like to share something with you that I learned this week through this study. The study is on the book of Hebrews. It's all about Jesus. Really. And it's teaching us that it truly is ALL ABOUT JESUS. What does this look like really? What does this look like in our life? So we are looking at Jesus. Hebrews 2: 17 says,

"Therefore [Jesus] had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God..."

Who are his brothers? We are! In verse 11 the author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus "is not ashamed to call [us] brothers." So Jesus was human, flesh and blood. This is really nothing new to most of us in the Christian faith. We also know that he was tempted as we are, and he went through every human emotion that we do. We know that he was made like us so that "he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God" just as this verse says. He is a perfect mediator. How could he do that if he hadn't been through it?? But sometimes this all stays as head knowledge. It does for me anyway until God brings me to the point where I'm digging so hard that I have to see it.

But in thinking through this concept this week, it hit me. Jesus was 30 years old when he started his ministry. He was 12 when he first went to the temple and impressed the socks off the Jewish rabbis. He knew at that point that he was God. Whether he knew before then (humanly speaking) is debatable and there are many different ideas about that. But it really doesn't matter. The Bible is silent about Jesus' life on earth from the time he was 12 years old until he was 30. Did he live through those years or did he just skip them? Stupid question, right? Of course he lived them. And during those years he experienced all the things that normal teenagers experience and then all the things that normal twenty-somethings experience. All the while, he knew he was the savior. He knew God had a plan for his life. He knew the will of his Father. What he didn't know was "when" that would happen. Could he have saved the world at 13? Probably. Could he have done it at 18 or 25? I'm sure he could have. But God had him wait for 18 years. So Jesus knew what it was like to wait.

This gives me comfort. Jesus knows. Jesus understands. Jesus is at God's right hand telling him exactly what I need because he's been there. He's done that. I can rest in this knowledge. Oh, my glorious Jesus knows and cares and mediates for me.

Does it make it easier to wait? For now it does. While I keep an eternal perspective it does. When I lose that (which I'm sure will happen from time to time) I will probably worry again. I'm human. I'm fallen. I'm nowhere close to the perfection that God is sanctifying me for. But I have truth to fall back on. I have God's word that is never silent, always living, and always able to speak to every situation I will ever encounter. That's the word of the amazing, living God of the universe that we serve.

Making Choices

I decided to write this today because it's been on my mind. Lately I've become aware (especially through Facebook) that so many people that I know (and have known in the past) are affected by the not-so-great choices that they made earlier in their lives. Usually these choices were made right out of high school or college or maybe into their 20's. Maybe sometimes these choices were more recent. But the people that I am talking about are people who are really trying to live for Christ now. I can see it in the lives or in their posts. I can see it in the things they talk about and dwell on. I can see it in how they want to raise their children and the relationships that they want to have. But no matter how much they desire to live by God's design right now, those choices are still haunting them.

I believe with all my heart that if we are faithful to God, he will redeem our choices--even the bad ones. Romans 8:28 tells us that "All things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose." That means that even those bad choices will work for our good, but that doesn't mean that the consequences will go away. Sometimes we may have to live with those consequences for the rest of our lives. This is so sad to me!

Choices like drinking/drugs, marrying the wrong guy/girl and ending up divorced (especially with children), affairs, abortion or maybe even just the "wrong" friends have a huge impact on us and everyone involved in our lives. I hurt for these people who truly have a heart for God now, and yet they continue to live with consequences of the choices they made before their heart was turned to him.

I'm not saying I made all the right choices. I definitely made some not-so-great choices myself--especially in high school. I am eternally grateful that God has redeemed those choices as well. I am ever so thankful as well that he directed my path to Covenant College. I believe that my life would be much different right now if he hadn't. I know that some Christians can attend a secular school and be fine. My brother did that. He graduated from the University of GA and did fine. He went to RUF and did great. He was just that kind of kid! But not me. I truly believe that if I had attended a secular college, I would not have been strong enough spiritually at the time to stand up against the pressure and make the right choices. I was a believer--no doubt. I have no question that if I had died right after high school, I would have spent eternity in heaven. But I was 17. I was immature. And I loved having fun! :) I still love having fun, but have grown up a little since then and realize that I have many more little lives that I am responsible for these days that will be directly impacted by my choices. I also don't find a lot of the same things to be "fun" anymore! :) But suffice it to say, I believe that God saved me from a lot of heartache by directing me to Covenant.

I have often thought about my choice to attend Covenant. There's really no answer as to "why" I went. People (especially during college) have asked me over the years why I went there. My real answer is "I don't know--only by the Lord's direction." I knew no one there. I had only known a couple of people who had gone there but not very well and not really people who influenced my life at all. Crazy. I was in the PCA, but besides that had no connection to Covenant. And yet, somehow, it was the only college to which I ever even applied! I got early acceptance at the end of my Jr. year of high school, and that was that. It was settled. I knew that my parents would be happy with me going to a Christian college, and I guess that's one place that my "first born-ness" must have kicked in!

And that is where the right choice made such a HUGE difference in my life. Covenant is where I made the best friends of my life. The four girls who still challenge me (almost on a daily basis even 16 years after graduation) to live my life as a wife, mother, friend, and Christian for Jesus. This has impacted me more than I can ever say. Covenant is where I learned what a Christian worldview really meant. It's where I learned to live my faith and make it mine. I learned that it's okay to question--as long as you're willing to look deep for the answers. I learned a lot of things and matured a lot.

But the most important way that Covenant changed my life is that I met my husband there. Together we changed. Together we were challenged to look at what our life would be like. Yes, we were young and in love and couldn't imagine ever not being "in love" and actually having to work at making a marriage work. But unlike so many others, we were told that it would happen. We were aware that one day, we may not feel like staying together or loving each other--but that's what commitment was all about. And the most important of all--we were equally yoked. Through all of our immaturity at 20 and 22 years of age when we said "I do," we both knew that was the most important thing. We served and worshipped the same God, and even though that may have looked different in each of our lives, we knew how important it was.

Okay, this isn't a post on marriage. But that's definitely one of the best choices I ever made--to marry a strong, faithful man who is dedicated to his God and family and will always work hard to take care of us.

Yes, I've made wrong choices even after marriage and children. I'm sure I always will. But the big choices that I have made have brought me to where I am today. I have no doubt that it has been God's leading to bring me to make any choices that have been the "right" ones. I believe that through infertility he showed me how to live daily in his presence. I believe that through hard times he teaches us more than we could ever learn through easy times. And when we bring those choices to him and place them in his hands, he will lead us in the right direction to make the right choices--choices that will bring him glory and honor and will, in turn, bring joy to our lives and those around us.

And why did I make any of the "right" choices that I made? I guess when I ponder this, I'd have to say it was prayer. Not my prayer--mind you. Yes, I prayed. But at 16 and 17 I can tell you that I wasn't on my knees daily giving all my choices to God. I believe it was through the faithful praying of my parents and my Grandma and others in our church family who committed to pray for me. That is why I am so thankful that my children having praying grandparents and even great-grandparents. They have parents who daily lift them up and lay them before the throne. Prayer is such a powerful weapon that we so often forget.

So I would encourage you to pray for your kids. Even if you messed up with lots of bad choices and are still reaping the consequences of those choices today, bathe your children in prayer. Maybe your prayers can keep them from making the same ones! Bring your little ones to him--that's exactly where he wants them!

Getting the focus off of me!

So I've been praying a lot lately--well, pleading is more like it. I mean the "throwing myself before the throne" kind of praying. It really hasn't been for me. It's for the stress that my sweet husband is going through right now, but I'm not going to go into that.

No, today has given me a whole new reason to pray. It's not that our situation isn't important. And I'm pretty sure that it's still right up there ranked #1 in Jon's mind because he hasn't said but about three words since he's been home. (And that's pretty few even for him!) :) But Jesus has given me a peace about our situation--no matter what happens, he has ordained it and will see us through.

But today other events have shadowed over thoughts of our problems. There are rampant wildfires here in Naples--just a few miles from us. There is 1500 acre fire burning that has tripled from this morning because of the winds. The winds are supposed to continue through tomorrow as well. Thankfully, the winds are blowing it in a different direction from us. But as it's doing that, there are 50+ homes with families who are in it's path. That number will more than likely grow. Another smaller fire north of here has already destroyed 4 homes, and there are 18 more in danger. The huge fire here is only 30% contained as of right now.

In other news, tornadoes are tearing up our country--all over the southeast, and all over towns and cities where we have friends and acquaintances. Two families that we know personally from college have been affected in the Chattanooga area. One's house was completely destroyed. They have five children. So thankful that none of them were home. God blessed them with the safety of their lives, but it doesn't make it any easier, I'm sure, that they've lost every material thing that they own. Another family that owns a Bed and Breakfast was hit badly as well. From what I understand, there was much damage done to their home and business.

And then there are all of those that we haven't heard from or ones that were hit that we don't know. They all have lives as well. There are some who have lost everything--humanly speaking. And it drives me to get out of my selfish thoughts and focus on them.

So I pray tonight that God would grant them peace--the peace that passes all understanding. I pray that he would use these tornadoes to bring his children closer to him, and that people would seek him out in their devastation. Isn't that when we usually seek him? Isn't that what it sometimes takes? I'm ashamed to admit that's what it takes for me a lot of the time. Sure, I give him the compensatory prayers. I try really hard to read my Bible and teach my children about him on a daily basis. We talk about him a lot, and we even sing praises and memorize scripture and all those good things. And they are good things. But do I do it with a heart that truly longs for him? Do I pray earnestly on a consistent basis? If I'm honest, I have to say "no."

So right now, God's got my attention. He's got my prayers and my thoughts. He's consuming me....

.....hmmmm, isn't that the point?

"You have no worth!"

Imagine having that statement yelled at you your entire life. Imagine that it was said not only with words but feelings, actions, and thoughts from everyone around you every day since you had been born. Imagine growing up believing that you were truly worthless, that God had forsaken you, that you were dirty and less than the animals, and even worse--you actually had no soul. For hundreds of millions of Dalits from India, this fate is true.

What made this true? The religion of Hinduism. The belief of reincarnation. Over 2500 years ago, the belief was started that what you are today is a result of past lives and how good or bad you were in those. In America, those "New Agey" types that believe in reincarnation have the freedom to make it fun and exciting--like they must have been a great explorer if they are adventurous or maybe a medicine man or woman if they are into natural healing today. It seems like great fun to think about what we "could have been." But in America we've never seen the devastation of the Hindu religion, the belief in reincarnation, and the caste system. We've never had the government tell us that we are the lowest of the low, deserving of nothing more than death because we had been cursed by God because of our sin in a past life.

You see, the "bible" of the Hindus tells them a different creation story than what our Christian Bible tells us. We believe in the God of Genesis--the one true God--who created all mankind equal. Genesis 1:27 tells us that "God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him. Male and Female he created him." This is what we know to be true. But this is not a truth shared by other religions around the world. In Hinduism, their holy book tells them that god created different castes of people out of his own pleasure--four different castes that are definitely segregated with the top two being only 6-8% of the population of India. About 60% of the population make up the bottom two "acceptable" castes. The bottom of these are even called the "slave caste" but they are still considered from god. What about the other roughly 40% of India? Untouchables. People who are not fit to be called "human." They are lower than animals and considered worthless. No one in the caste system is allowed to touch them unless they are using them as a sex slave. Yes, then it is acceptable. The world's largest percentage of sex trafficking comes from among the Dalits of India. They are not even allowed to let their shadow touch the shadow of a Brahmin (the highest of the castes) else they may corrupt the Brahmin. Yes, this type of horrendous apartheid still exists today in the enlightened age of 2011.

Most of us have heard of the caste system. We may even know how bad it "was." But we don't think of it as happening today. Most of us have heard that Ghandi got rid of it all. He was the savior of the Indians, right? He was the enlightened Hindu that taught peace and love and taught that all were equal. Well, maybe Ghandi believed that. Maybe Ghandi taught that. And maybe even some followers of Ghandi lived like that. But Ghandi did not change a 2500 year old tradition. Only a great God could do that, and that's exactly what He's doing. You see, Ghandi did get the government to give more opportunity to the Dalits. He got the government to "say" that everyone could have an equal opportunity, that discrimination wasn't allowable, etc. But he didn't get them to abolish the caste system. The labels remained. The stigmas remained. And for all but a few enlightened Hindus, everything else remained as well. The only thing that changed was that now the rest of the world was snowed.

Thankfully, things are changing. Dr. Joseph D'Souza visited our church this morning from India. You can read more about his life mission here at his blog. Dr. D'Souza is a man on fire for Christ. He is a man with a mission to reach his native country of India with the Word of God. He is a man who believes that God loves all of those untouchable Dalits and created them in His own image, and he is committed to spreading that as far as he can reach. You see, Dr. D'Souza was born a Brahmin in India. He is one of the top 3% of the population. He could do whatever he wanted, but he learned of the love of God and had to preach it. He prayed for years for a revival in India, but little did he know that the revival would start among the Dalits and spread like wildfire. Dr. D'Souza actually fell in love with and married a Dalit woman. Together they teach the good news that Jesus came for everyone, that He loves them, and that His love is all encompassing. Dr. D'Souza also has a huge burden for the women, little girls, and even boys who are among the world's biggest population of sex slaves--those being trafficked in India. He is the president of Dalit Freedom Network. He is committed to helping his wife's people. He has a heart for his own people of India--that they know Jesus, that they feel His love and embrace, and that they know their value because of Him.

In the fall, the pastor of our church along with another man in our church traveled to India. Their lives were changed by what they saw happening there. They testified to thousands of men, women and children scrambling to touch them, to be embraced by them, to feel the love of Jesus in "human" form. You can imagine what they must feel like. They've been unable to shake their destiny for 2500 years. They've had no hope, no worth, no future--except to hope that somehow they might be good enough in this life to be reincarnated as something better. Now, they've been given hope, a future. They've been given Jesus. There are Christians who are touching them, loving them, valuing them. Churches can't be built fast enough. Hundreds of people a day are being baptized into the church. Talk about a revival! Talk about a reformation! We expect those things to happen in "civilized" places--in America or Europe. But God works in different ways than us! God is looking for people who want to give all of themselves wholeheartedly to Him. How many of us can say we do that with no abandon?

This morning when Dr. D'Souza spoke, he told us to use our voice to let people know that this is real--that this is happening in 2011. I don't have much of a voice. I don't have much of an audience. But I'll do what I can. My purpose is to let you know that the caste system is still alive and greatly oppressing in India. That most of the population is yet to be reached by the Christians who want to reach them. Sadly, Christianity isn't the only thing spreading there. Muslims are targeting the Hindus as well. They are there waiting with "answers" too. Please pray with me that God's word will be spread. Maybe you feel the tug on your heart to get involved in a more personal way or at least to find out more! I encourage you to do some research, get involved, pray for these people, pray for sex trafficking to end or more! And use your voice. We all have one!

Praying for my family

My heart is heavy this morning. I'm thinking about and praying for a cousin that I haven't seen in a very long time. In fact, when I saw I his picture on my aunt's facebook page the other day, I wouldn't have recognized him if she hadn't had his name on there! Crazy how time gets away from us. I'm praying for him today because his 18 year old son, Zach, died during the day on Saturday. I cannot fathom this. I pray that I never have to be able to. Zach's funeral is today.

What makes this even harder (if anything can) is that my cousin has been a single dad for the past 16 years. He has truly dedicated his life to being Zach's dad. He has put everything on hold in his own life for his son.... and now he's gone. I can't imagine the emptiness he's feeling. What must that feel like to pour every part of yourself into a child--molding them, shaping them, disciplining them, and loving them with every fiber of your being--only to have them abruptly vanish from your life right as they were really beginning theirs. It's an unimaginable thought. It's every parent's nightmare--and he's living it.

Zach and his dad lived with my uncle and aunt until Zach was about twelve. So they were like a second set of parents. He was their pride and joy. They are suffering immensely through this as they are trying to be strong and a support for their son while their own hearts are being ripped apart as well. My uncle is my mother's brother, and she is having a most difficult time figuring out how to be what he and my aunt need right now.

These are the hardest of human times. These times when there are no answers. There are no words. For those closest to Zach--especially his dad--there may seem to even be no reason to keep going right now. How is it possible that such tragedies occur? Nothing else matters in life when things like this happens. The economy, politics, unemployment rates, taxes, etc..... none of it matters. These are the times when families pull together and, for awhile, make a silent agreement to forget any other differences. These are the times when brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives (even ex-wives), and best friends are the most important people in the world, and they are irreplaceable. Somehow these people bring a little bit of divinity to our fallen humanity.

There are no answers for "why?" There never really will be until eternity. There is nothing to ease the hurt or stop the pain--for awhile at least. One day my cousin will have a life again. One day, with time, he will laugh again. He will pick up the pieces and go on. I hope he will even get married again and maybe even have more children. They will never replace Zach. Nothing could ever replace the hours, days and years he spent doing his best, doing what he thought was right for his son.

Our only hope is Jesus. My greatest desire above all else is to see my children come to Jesus--to see them place their lives and hearts in His hands. I desire this even above their own life. Because this life is fleeting. It may last 70 or 80 years or longer. Or it may only last 18 or less. But in any situation it is short in comparison to eternity. I want to make sure that I am spending eternity with my children, and that their eternity is with Jesus. I pray this for all of my family, friends and even the world. What the world needs is Jesus.