Some of my greatest mentors have been children under the age of five. I never asked them to lead me or teach me. I never even asked the Lord if I could encounter Him through them. I just have a feeling He did it because He could and there is always something the generation behind us can teach us. It is legacy. It is unity. It is His heart. So grab a seat, pour yourself a cup of coffee and let me tell you about three little girls who the Lord use to wreck me, rock me and set me free.
I met a little girl named Sophie which means wisdom about three years ago. She was two years old and was one of the cutest kids I had ever met. She reminded me a lot of my half sister, Savannah. I met her as I had responded to an ad to come and babysit for her family. On my first night that I ever babysat for that family, we played together and she did crazy things that I told her were not good ideas – like microwaving grapes. 😉
After I had put her to bed for the night, Sophie kept crying. At first I wondered if she was trying to get out of going to bed. But then I noticed that she was getting more sick and more sick. She was having trouble breathing and so she would wake up afraid and start crying. So I got into her bed with her, held her and rubbed her hair until she fell asleep.
I wanted her to feel safe enough to fall asleep. As she was sleeping beside me and I was rubbing her hair, I suddenly heard the Lord speak to me so clearly and say, "You are going to go all over the nations and you're going to lay with children and hold them so that they feel safe enough to fall asleep." Silent tears fell down my face.
Sophie taught me about the Father and the wild destiny God has for me.
The second little one I met was Nora who I began to nanny for part-time. When I met her lovely little self, she was three months and I hung out with her a lot over the next seven months. She was an incredible baby except she hated to sleep.
I spent a lot of time with her praying over her life and into her destiny. I specifically spent a lot of time praying that she would be so filled with the peace of God that she would fall asleep; that He would rock her to rest. It honestly worked every time. Nora had a twin who didn't make it and I know how that type of loss impacts babies more than we really realize. I know Jesus brought a lot of healing into that little life and to this day, Nora has a special place in my heart.
Nora taught me that Jesus longs to heal our hearts.
Most recently, I met the sweetest little girl when we were working in the Dominican Republic. It was hard to really get her name, the closest we got from her was "Lulu." It is hard to say if that was really it, but we ran with it. I met her one of the mornings when we were hanging out in a park and out of nowhere, she bolted through that park and threw herself on my legs. I spent that morning making her giggle.
Later that week, i saw her again and her brother and sister. They followed me everywhere. My team needed my help moving a family and so I told her to wait there in my broken French. While I moved the entire family, they all waited, in fact they did not move an inch.
Lulu taught me that play is powerful and love is relentless.
Their freedom was outrageous.
Their cry was obvious.
Their hope was reckless.
These are the lives I want to lay my own life down for.
To preserve a generation to truly become deliverers.
I won't settle for anything less.
