The Best Night

There have been a lot of days in my life where I thought, wow, that was the best day of my life. I remember thinking that at my homecoming senior year of high school, at my prom, the night Jordan proposed to me, the day I got married, the day each of my kids was born....

But last night. Last night was the best night of my life. And more importantly, it was the best night of Lauren's life.

It was a lazy kind of night. Sullivan had just been sent to his room for slamming Contessa's finger in a door, Lauren was lounging on the love seat, I was in the kitchen, Contessa was wandering around and Avery was on Jordan's lap watching a Rick Steves' travel video.

They were watching a clip about the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.

They were looking at the faces of 'the damned' in a Judgement Day depiction on the entrance to the cathedral.

And Avery said, "Daddy, are they going to hell because they do not trust in Jesus?"

Jordan responded and Avery continued to question..."What does that really mean to trust in Jesus?"

Jordan called me in and I sat with them and we talked. We talked about when people die they go to one of two places. (Matthew 7:13-15) And how we need to be saved and trust in Jesus as our only way to get to heaven. (John 14:6) Avery's heard this all before, in true Avery fashion, told us that she was little, she wasn't going to die. We said that was probably true but I also briefly reminded her of the Second Coming of Jesus (I Cor. 15:51-53) and how we should be ready for Him to return and that we should want to trust in Him because He loved us first. (1 John 4:19)

And then we were getting ready to pretty much wrap up the conversation and from the other side of the room, Lauren stands up. She says, "I've never done that, I need to get saved."

Now we've talked with Lauren about this many many times. But Jordan and I both vowed long ago to not push a salvation prayer out of our kids. We wanted it to be their decision. We wanted them as adults to be able to look back and be 100% sure it was something THEY decided to do with Christ...not something their parents convinced them to do.

Lauren walked over to us with tears in her eyes and grabbed my hand and said, "I want to get saved, I'm ready." Then she prayed a prayer. Unprompted she told Jesus that she knew she had done naughty things and that she needed Him. She said that she knew He was God and that she wanted to go to heaven. She asked for forgiveness. When she was done she looked up with big tears in her eyes and the BIGGEST smile on her face and said, "I feel different! My heart feels different."

Jordan and I were both crying and we knew exactly the feeling that she was talking about.

I love how God had the evening planned for us. That while we weren't expecting anything out of the ordinary to occur...HE managed to get rowdy Sullivan out of the picture (!) and to quiet the house enough for Him to do His work on Lauren through the questions of her little sister. I love it that she wasn't even in the conversation but that while Jordan and Avery and I talked, the Holy Spirit was on the other side of the room...proding Lauren's little heart.

Oh how I love that little girl and our Savior.

And that, was the best night of my life.