JUST Me!

I'm loving my son's sacrificial spirit as we are about to head out to Costco:
"Mommy, when we go there, can you buy me dinner there so that I have more time to play with Daddy when he gets home?  JUST me, though.  JUST me.  I don't want you to have to spend TOO much money on our family."
Awww...such a thoughtful boy!  ;)

As I'm typing this, Dan is putting Matthew to bed and I can hear them both singing from Matthew's bed:
The world behind me, the cross before me...

It will take time, but I think he will eventually get what that means.  I love the time that we have with each of our kids at bedtime.  Often times it is much later than we would prefer and we kind of just want to say goodnight and shut the door.  But bedtime is such a precious time when Matthew opens up and asks some really deep questions.  It is probably one of the best times that we have with him right now to really influence him and teach him about life and the things of the Lord.

Claire isn't into asking deep questions quite yet.  So far her questions consist of, "Kiss, kiss?"  But she loves being sung to in her rocking chair right before we lay her down.  She goes through phases where she prefers certain songs.  Before last week, if Dan was putting her to bed she would ask for "Geesh!" which means "Jesus, King of Angels."  She would ask ME for "Day!" which means the song "Love Him In The Morning When You See the Sun Arising."  Her current favorite - and ONLY song that she insists we sing over and over - is "Goess" which means "Glorious Day" by Casting Crowns.  We don't think she could have picked a better song to summarize the Gospel!  The chorus says:
Living He loved me
Dying He saved me
Buried He carried my sins far away
Rising He justified freely forever
One day He's coming
Oh, glorious Day!

We love bedtime with our kids!