Fighting the Good Fight

"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ" -Philippians 1:6

We have struggled to get Lucas into his Sunday School class at church for 3 years. In complete transparency, we have struggled in many ways with Lucas. When he decides he won't do something, there really isn't much we can do. Everyday things that may be simple for other families can quickly become a huge headache for us. For whatever reason, he decided a few years ago he didn't want to go into his class. Rather than force the issue, we have allowed him to sit with us in church. But I knew he would learn a lot more (and have more fun!) in his own class with kids his age.

Each time we went to church we would walk him to his class and give him the option to stay. Sometimes I stayed with him for a while to gradually ease him into things. We have had mornings in the church parking lot with him screaming and fighting us for an hour, simply because he didn't want to walk inside, wear shoes, etc etc etc. Honestly, it has been extremely discouraging. When the 7 yr old is grumbling, the 5 yr old is punching, the 3 yr old peepeed her pants, and the baby is crying......it has made us question why we are even trying to get to church by 9am most Sundays. And yes, there have been many Sundays where we kind of gave up and just stayed home, half listening to the sermon online.

Recently, the message at church was about "fighting the good fight". He emphasized that often when you are doing what God wants you to do, you will be met with resistance. Satan will attack any efforts to advance the Kingdom of God. Satan doesn't want us at church. He doesn't want us worshipping God with other believers. He will go out of his way to put up roadblocks to keep us from church.

This is why we can't stop fighting the good fight. This is why we cannot grow weary while doing good.

A few weeks ago Lucas stayed in his Sunday School class the entire time. I was in there with him for the first half, before I snuck away. Last week he stayed the entire time without me.

And today? Well let me tell you about today. He got up this morning and got dressed. I told him where we were going, and I was met with zero resistance. He hugged me goodbye at his classroom door and smiled. When I picked him up he was happy. And as we turned to leave, he stopped me. "Mommy! I want to say my memory verse!" And he recited his verse to the teacher right there, without any prompting.

Praise God! I don't know what next week will bring, but I am praising God for this week. I saw the fruits of our labor today and the awesome ways God works. And it was so, so good.

On the way home Ryan asked me if Santa knows about God. Anyone have a good answer for that?