Never Too Young

He and I are so very different.

My days are charted on calendar squares long before my feet touch the sheepskin rug beside my bed. My dreams are lofty and require a lifetime pursuit.

But Wyatt?

Each day, he lifts head from a Thomas the Tank pillow to live in the here and now, asking, "Where are we going today?" His dreams can be fulfilled in a matter of seconds--digging in dirt piles, having a tractor playdate with Opa, or making a gingerbread house with Grand daddy.

He's not even four years old yet. At this point, Wyatt can't imagine a time beyond Christmas.

My heart, though, leaps months and years ahead to the teenager, the young adult, the man I want him to be.

And what I see in him scares me, tugs at this mama's heart with an indescribable ache of concern.

This past week, the problem of lying has returned with a vengeance to our holly-decked house.

Wednesday afternoon, Wyatt lied about breaking a floor tile left on the back porch. We talked about it. We discussed why it was wrong. He was punished. End of subject, right?

Not three hours later, the lying monster returned.

Three precious angels were instructed to "not move" and finish eating supper at the kitchen table while I walked upstairs to grab their Wednesday night church clothes. Still holding pants and a shirt from the first closet, I heard running feet and then Wyatt yelling heavenward that Amelia had done something naughty.

At first, I thought our kitchen had been hit by a sudden hailstorm that silently came and went in the two minutes I was away. Then, I realized a glass platter made of safety glass had shattered on the kitchen floor, leaving no piece larger than the diamond in my wedding ring.

In the cleanup talking, it became clear (as it so often does to mothers) that Wyatt, not Amelia, broke the plate.

Another lie.

What was I doing wrong? Defeated, I sunk by the kitchen pantry and began to cry.

Wyatt didn't understand--this wasn't how mommy normally acted when he did something wrong. Why wasn't she yelling? Spanking? Sending him to a naughty bench?

In that instant, this mommy saw in the shattered glass a vision of a lying child growing into an lying adult consumed with sin and not consumed with a love for Jesus...a child separated from me for all eternity.

And I cried.

My mother says he's a little young to learn about hell. I didn't really think about that as he asked me what was wrong, and I began spilling forth my heart in one huge run-on sentence:

"Mommy is going to heaven one day and she wants you to be there with her. And if you keep lying and being naughty, you can't go to heaven to be with me and Jesus. You'll be sent away from mommy forever to a place called hell."

At this point, his voice grew a bit wobbly, too. "But who will take care of me."

I told him the truth, that nobody would take care of him in hell. I said that people only went to heaven if they loved Jesus and obeyed Jesus' commands as a way to show Him love. Lying was not obeying or loving Jesus, and if he didn't ask Jesus to help him be an obedient boy........

And we cried together.

For now, I snuggle a bit closer to him as we read our afternoon stack of books together. But it's the tomorrow I long to know about.

I can prepare Wyatt's heart to love Jesus. I can teach him Scripture, read him Bible stories, take him to church regularly, involve him in showing others Jesus' love, and live out Jesus' love in my own actions.

But only God can direct the heart toward saving faith in Him.

When you pray, add my children's names to your perpetual prayer list. No person is too young to start praying for his/her salvation.