Sweet moments with Danny

One night last week before bed, Danny came to me with a handful of change. "Mom, how much money is this?" I counted, "$1.05" "Okay." he said and then asked if he could put it in an envelope and take it in to school "for a boy in my class who is very poor." I asked why he thought he was poor and he relayed a story another boy had told him. I praised him for his desire to help another and for the evidence of God's grace in his heart that lead him to be so generous. The boys had deduced that this other boy was poor because he would never buy lunch at school-"he always packs his lunch." So I gave him permission to offer to buy this boy some ice cream at lunch time.
The next morning, Danny emptied out all of the change in his piggy bank and asked if I would put it in an envelope so he could give it to this boy to take home to his parents. Then he said he was going to tell all the other kids in the class that they had to bring in $0.86 each to give to this boy. This was getting a little out of hand rather quickly so I suggested that we pray first about what we should do then we will wait to see what God leads us to do. After he headed off to school, I put in a call to his teacher to let her know that the children were talking in this way and also asked if she would arrange for Danny to be able buy ice cream for this boy.
When Danny came home from school that day, the first thing he asked was "Did you get an answer from God yet?" I explained to him that Yes, I do believe God was faithful to give me direction and we proceeded to discuss how this all came about and as I encouraged him for his generosity I was also able to talk to him and warn him about gossip as this story about this boy was not true at all. I love Danny's heart in this to help these people and his desire to rally others to help as well. I pray for the wisdom to help guide him in these things in a God honoring way, and that one day he will be rallying others to help those in need.

This next story somewhat flows out of the first in that when I told Danny we would wait until we heard from God, that brought up many questions about how do you hear from God etc.
Today when Danny came home from school he didn't come right inside. Instead, after taking the trash cans in from the road, he went to his favorite climbing tree. Nothing out of the ordinary. Tonight, however when I was putting him to bed he said to me "Mom, while I was outside today taking the trash cans in and sitting in my tree, I was counting God's blessings. How he has given me food and clothes and things and it was fun." "Well Guess what Dan?" I said, "All of those thoughts came to you from God. God was out there with you and He wanted to spend time with you today out in your tree!" He was so excited and then he was going on about how he could picture Jesus sitting next to him on the branch and talking to him. And then as he started to say his prayers he stopped and said "It's like being with God when we say our prayers too because we are talking to him." Amen, Danny and shouldn't that motivate us all to be more often on our knees! Thank you Jesus for the sweet time with Danny today. I pray that there will be many more!!!
Oh and guess what story we came to in our Bible reading tonight? It is actually a combined story which contains Matthew 18:1-4 and Matthew 19:13-15.

Matthew 18:1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew19:13 Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, 14 but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” 15 And he laid his hands on them and went away.