The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, But the righteous are bold as a lion. – Proverbs 28:1

Being third in the line of boys…and the quietest of my bunch…sometimes Jackson gets lost in the mix.

He is just not the total extrovert that the rest of us are.  He needs time to rejuvenate and refresh…alone…before tackling people again.

This is not to say that he isn’t friendly.  I get comments all the time about how good he is with new kids, including them easily in whatever he is doing.  He showed this trait on the missions trip.

He is also a ham.  He is the one to tell the jokes, albeit often corny.  He loves to be clever with his words.

He showed something else, a budding strength that I think will get him far in this world.

When the situation calls for it, he can be bold.

Now, since he was a little guy, Jackson has been the monologue king.  He would be sitting on the floor, playing with a toy, reciting the lines from some show he had seen.  He could remember long passages, even at a very early age.

I have asked him about trying community theater.  We have a couple Christian children’s theater groups here in the area, and I told him he could take a class.

So far, he has refused, saying he doesn’t like that kind of thing.

Enter the missions trip.  He and one of the other boys on the trip really hit it off.  He and Ethan hung out a lot, talking 90 miles a minute, planning things for the future.

They also planned to be part of our team talent show.

They chose to do a skit.  In fact, as people backed out on them and changed things several times, they still were determined to do something in the talent show.

The skit they did was just about what you would expect a couple 8-year olds to do.  It was silly.  They messed up, but kept going.  They had a ton of fun doing it.

And, silly as the skit was, my heart swelled.

Now, I have no illusions that I have a budding Olivier…I am not even sure I would want one of my boys to fight the Babylon of Hollywood.  But I am convinced that the boldness he is learning to display…both in getting up in front of everyone, and sticking to his guns about participating even when others dropped out…will be used by God in mighty ways.

My little guy is growing and changing into what I pray is a budding man-after-God’s-own-heart.

And I glory in it.

And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. – 1 Corinthians 12:5-7

My sweet Matthew is often in Alex’s shadow.  Part of it is probably my fault.  As an oldest myself, I have a similar personality and outlook as Alex and I often turn to him first, whether Matthew is capable of accomplishing the same task or not.

On the missions trip, Matthew had an opportunity to shine in a new way…one that brought tears to my eyes.

My husband Keith was a kid-person.  He was the one they asked to work in the nursery at church, the one to whom they would give the crying child.  He was a gentle giant who was perpetually patient with little ones.

My boys have a lot of their dad in them.  I get lots of compliments about how they treat younger kids, how they greet visitors, and how they pitch in to act as good friends.  And I praise God for it!

Matthew has always had a sense about people.  We call him the little emotional barometer.  He can walk into a room and know who needs a friend, who needs a word of encouragement, or a word of prayer.  It is joyous to watch as he looks for the person with whom he is supposed to connect…and then makes that contact.

On the missions trip, Matthew really got to use this gift.

We were at the Vacation Bible School at the Boys and Girls Club, and there was a little boy named Cal.  He was barefoot, with a shock of blonde hair, and wearing glasses.  And he took a shine to Matthew.  Matthew, in turn, began to lavish on him the love of the Lord.

Matthew sat next to Cal at the morning worship activities at VBS and stayed with him at the game time following.  Before long, he was carrying him around piggy-back.  They ate lunch together, Matthew tenderly watching him and engaging him in conversation.  When it was time to leave, I had a hard time getting Matthew to the car.  “I just want to give Cal one more hug, Mom.”

Eleven year old boys are not the most “aware” lot on the planet.  Too much going on mentally, I think:  puberty encroaching and affecting hormones, learning to manage the ever-changing body, seeking to find a place in the “cool” scale of peers.  So, to see my guy come outside of himself and give to this little boy made me teary.

Even more wonderful was how God used this beautiful friendship the next week.

We had Vacation Bible School at our church, and there was a family with an autistic son.  Matthew easily reached out to this little boy as well, helping to make him feel comfortable.  I got several compliments over the way he pitched right in, and how good he was at reading little Thomas.

Double blessings!

I am not sure if Matthew has found his calling for life, but I do know that God is glorified by the things he learned…and applied…from our missions trip.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
    Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.

– Psalm 100:1-2

There are times when you see God doing cool things in your kids that just bless your socks off.  I had many moments on the missions trip of this, some for each of the boys.

My sons all do much to make me proud of them, but there are few moments in my life that I have been more proud than when Alex is leading me in worship.

Alex has been involved in the teen worship band at church for the better part of three years.  Our church is blessed to have a host of talented teens and a gifted director of their worship.  They truly do most of the lead worshiping for the congregation on Sunday mornings.  It is truly a joy to see.

When we went on the missions trip, none of us Wrights thought about bringing instruments for worship.  Alex left his guitar at home, and Matthew left the bongos.  I did not even think about how worship would be accomplished.

After arriving in Tennessee, Alex volunteered to help with the worship team that was assembling.  We had several singers, a keyboard (donated while we were there, but that is another story), and a guitarist Alex’s age.

Now, I didn’t have a real worry about Alex “fitting in” with a different group of worshipers.  He has proven himself to be flexible and mature.  But still…as his momma, I said a prayer.  Maybe two.

And things worked beautifully!  Alex and his new friend Joshua shared the duties of playing guitar, working together, helping each other.

The worship was…in a word…AWESOME!  God was so there with us…different as we were, as short a practice time as they had.

And in the midst of it was my little boy.  You know, moms always look at their kids that way, at least to an extent.  He was following well, going with the flow, and worshiping God.  No attitude, no showing off.

My great friend TJ who leads the teen worship bands works hard to make sure these young people understand that they are merely the lead worshipers…not there to put on a show but to help the congregation worship.  By Alex’s behavior, he obviously gets it…and is joyfully applying what he has learned.

And it makes me realize that my little boy is growing to be a man…a man in the image of his father Keith…and his Father God.

And that makes my heart sing.

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. – I Corinthians 12:4-6

Our team leads on the trip talked about us constantly working to stretch ourselves in our walks as we worked on the trip…and in our lives in general.

And I saw a lot of stretching going on!

Even in my own family.

Even in…me!

God took me to places in an area I thought I was “good” in…the area of prayer.

Now, I have been involved in prayer ministry for many years.  It is something I can do despite my schedule and little ones, wherever I am, and all the time.  It also uses words, and you all know that I am pretty familiar with words.  OK – I have a big mouth.

What God clued me into on this trip was praying with my hands.

Jesus did a lot of His ministry by touching people…physically and emotionally.  He made physical contact as he prayed over them, healed them, and ministered to them.  There is no telling how many people He touched physically.

Now, I have had hands laid on me in prayer before…and have laid hands on others.  But this prayer lesson was slightly different.

I was laying hands on things.

As I have already shared, we arrived early to the week of ministry.  After we had gotten everything ready for the rest of the team to arrive, I felt compelled to pray over the chairs.

Well, not really the chairs per se, but the people who would be occupying them.  I walked through the room and touched all 60 chairs and prayed over each occupant…safe arrival, safety during the work, touching the lives of others, being touched themselves,  And I felt blessed from being able to pray such prayers over individuals I had not even met yet.

The next morning, I was up early, before most of the team, and again, I walked around the room and prayed for every person while touching their chair.  I felt compelled each work day were were there to do the same.  It was not a ritual or a talisman, but a grateful heart adding my prayers to all the others over our week and our team.

When we went to M.A.T.S., the homeless shelter I have already mentioned in another blog entry, I did the same over the names of the individuals living in the shelter which were on a board in the office.  I did not meet all of them, but I prayer over all of them by name before the Lord.

It really was a beautiful and humbling experience for me.

I have a friend in the medical profession who told me years ago that as she lays her hands on a patient, examining them, she prays over them.  Every single one of them.

Now I get the power of touch as a part of prayer in a new and more complete way than I previously did.

And it has made me more bold in my prayers.  Praise God!

When our Children’s Director was stressing this week about the start of VBS, I quietly lay my hands on her shoulders and silently prayed.  When one of my boys had a hurt arm, I silently prayed as I held his arm and examined it.

Sometimes little things are needed to energize us for the Lord.  This was one I needed…new life into this old wineskin.

Praise God that He saw it and taught me something!

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. – Philippians 1:4-6

We returned from our first day of work on our missions trip and met up with the other groups back at the ranch.  From the time they walked it, it was evident that one of the groups had not had a good day.

They were beaten down, battle-weary, discouraged.

The first day at the Boys and Girls Club where we were doing VBS had not gone well.  The kids were not listening well; the staff was not encouraging; the battle seemed uphill all the way.

We wrapped our arms around this team as best we could that night.  We listened while they vented; we hugged them.

And we prayed.

We were determined as a group to use the opportunity we had been given to further the kingdom and not to give over ground to the enemy.  Their stress was our stress.  Their success was our success; their failure, ours as well.

So we kept praying.

Before returning to our assignments the next day, we laid hands on the team and prayed as part of our morning worship.

We kept praying for them throughout the day.

As the teams returned that evening, we all waited with expectation to see how the day had gone.

And God had done a mighty work!

The team returned…smiling, peaceful, restored.

The day went beautifully!  The changes the team made to the day’s structure had a positive effect!  The staff warmed up!  The kids listened better!

What a difference a day makes!

More importantly, what a difference a prayer makes!

Our team had the opportunity to go to the Boys and Girls Club the day after that.  I spent much of the time elated and teary because of the work I saw being done.

I watched kids saying Bible verses, singing and dancing to Bible songs, and loving on our team members.

It was beautiful.

The power of love and prayer had done a mighty work in our hearts…and I think in the kids’ as well.

As we left for the day–the last day we would be there–the kids begged even our team, the new team, to stay…just as they begged the team who had been there all week.

By perseverance and prayer, God gained ground…and we got to be part of it.

It is something that I will not forget.  Praise Him!  Praise Him!