Challenging authority, and the authority of scripture

On this day, my Jewel, my lovely, smart, independent, fierce Jewel, who never backs down from a fight, decided not to back down from a fight. She is this way, indignant in her self righteousness, and one day it is going to serve her well for the Gospel.

For the time being however, her insistence on her personal justification can be a bit taxing. We see eye to eye. Literally. There is not much I can do to rein her in if she decides to challenge authority, and on this afternoon, she decided to go to battle. Regardless of the issue at hand, she wasn't going to back down, and I thought for sure that the rest of the day would be spent with her sulking and my Beloved and I thinking about how we can correct her behavior.

Thank the Lord for the Gospel.

Over the subsequent hours, her hardened heart began to soften and by post-dinner time, my Beloved challenged the family to begin memorizing Romans 8. I mean, WOW. Talk about heavyweight work, right there. Thirty-nine of the most intense, densely packed doctrinal verses that you're going to find in the whole Bible. But hey, why not?

We dig in and start working on verse one, just the 3 of us. My Jewel is the best memorizer. She knows how to do it. I'm the worst, and she will tease me. Good-natured, of course.

After we walk through the verses though, the really interesting stuff begins. I tell her that this text, here in Romans, has been studied by some of the smartest people in the world for literally thousands of years.

She sighs. That means that it's impossible to understand it, right?

NO! I say. Quite the opposite. YOU can understand it too! God has written it in such a way that any boy or girl can understand His doctrines of depravity, justification, and grace. It is not beyond you, even at 9 years old.

And so began a nearly 2 hour dialogue about the doctrines of grace and listening to my girl talk about the substance of God's redemption plan for man in a way I have never heard before. At one point when we were discussing original sin, she actually asked, "So if Adam and Eve never messed up...we would never die?" And I was simply floored, because that idea never, ever came from me. It was solely within her ability to reason through the doctrine of original sin. I still cannot comprehend how she reached such a conclusion.

All this to say, my Jewel may not be a true believer in Christ yet, but I am encouraged. So very encouraged. I am encouraged by how God can transform what was a challenge to my earthly authority into something that brings her spirit to understand God's authority in some way.

Lastly, I can't help but reflect on my family's state. These past few years have been incredibly difficult, suffice to say. I've experienced every negative emotion I can possibly think of. And up to this point, I have only thought of it in consideration of myself. What is God trying to teach me? What sin is He working to eradicate? How is He using it to shape me? But never, up until this point, did I ever consider, that part of His plan for this time in the desert would be to bring my Jewel to a saving faith.

If this is the cost to ensure that my first born, my Jewel, my little girl, has her spirit secure in Heaven for eternity, then the price I have paid is less than a fraction of a penny. I'd gladly pay it again.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. - Romans 8:18