We have a tradition in our house that is a carryover from when I was a child. We like to celebrate not just our physical birthdays, but also our spiritual birthday. In John 3 Jesus is talking to Nicodemus about being “born again.” He says this, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.”
We have taken our role as parents very seriously. Not just making sure our kids are healthy and happy, in fact that is one of our lowest priorities. But, we make sure we bring them up in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Our greatest goal in parenting is that our children know and glorify Jesus Christ with their lives. We have told them about Jesus since they could hear the sound of our voice. And we have invited them to walk with him in a personal relationship. We have been privileged to be present with all three of our children when they made this decision to follow Christ and we continue to encourage them to follow through in this decision daily. Truly this is one of the best arguments I can give for being a stay-at-home mom.
While I firmly believe that the moment of salvation has absolutely nothing to do with a “special little prayer” and everything to do with the believer’s heart attitude. And while I also believe that “you shall know them by their fruit,” we also like to celebrate with our children their “spiritual birthdays” as a reminder of the most important “birth” of all. Truly our physical life here is just a vapor, but their eternal life, hidden with Christ in God, is for eternity, and so we celebrate that.
Two years ago, over the 4th of July, Daniel chose to put his trust in Jesus Christ for salvation alone. Talk about a TRUE Independence Day! So, we celebrated his spiritual birthday just a few days ago. We made him a chocolate chip cookie cake (we usually do angel food, but we forgot til the last minute!!) and gave him a “Life is Good” shirt, because life IS good in Jesus Christ! And Daniel has made the decision to follow Jesus command in baptism this summer at our church baptism service in August. I am encouraged to see the tiny seeds of fruit growing in Daniel’s life. Just last week we were picking strawberries and I overhead Daniel talking to the man in the row next to us.
“Are you a Christian?” he asked the man.
“Do you know for sure you’d go to heaven if you died tonight?” he went on.
This was all coming from my shyest child, yet he was bold enough to stand up for Christ.
“And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man shall confess him also before the angels of God;” –Luke 12:8
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