When your spiritual guide is a child

I think most people have a spiritual guide of sorts – a person who inspires them either to think about their faith more deeply or to engage with faith in the first place. I have a small group of people from different parts of my life who encourage, support or inspire me on this journey, but the main person at the moment is my three-year-old daughter.

From the moment I realised that I had a small life growing inside me, to the moment, recently, when she chose to pray to God to take her daddy’s cold away, she has inspired me. Sometimes I wish she would go to crèche or Sunday school rather than insist on staying with the adults during the church service – it can be quite distracting when she decides to spend most of the service on the move, or is jealous of another kid playing on an iPhone – but, on the other hand, I cannot deny being blown away by hearing her say, with total conviction, that Jesus is her best friend, or, as she said to a friend the other day: “Sometimes I feel proud of Jesus.” Perhaps, spending so many Sundays listening to a good sermon is having an effect on her – making up for the fact that I find it difficult to focus on those sermons myself.

Recently I was given some children’s picture books based on the biblical story of David. They have deepened her desire to pray and have a relationship with God. The idea of prayer helping to overcome fear, even when you are staring a giant in the face, calls to the heart of a three-year-old. Her reaction has in turn got me reading 1 and 2 Samuel to see if it will have a similar effect on me. I’m finding the material a little more challenging – perhaps I’ll study the Psalms for a bit instead…

Commitment-Phobe is trying God

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This is an extract from the February 2016 edition of Reform.

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