Have you ever had one of those "God Moments" where He just puts things into perspective? If not, get ready, because He will and He'll do it in the most unexpecting way. Today it happened to me while trying to get my little man to take a nap.

He must be teething or something because typically naps aren't something he tries to fight. This boy can sleep! Except for today, he really wasn't wanting to take that afternoon nap. As the tears were flowing and his cries were steadily getting louder, I did the only thing I know to do in that situation. Nope, it wasn't call mom and ask what to do, it wasn't call MiMa and ask how to handle it, it wasn't even just turn up the radio and let him cry it out. It was to worship.

So I began to give God praise in our room. More praise. More crying. More praise. Louder crying. After about six minutes, I fell to my knees convinced that if I can stir up the presence of God by my praise, I know Baby Paper will respond. God's word says that "He inhabits the praises of His people" which means He will literally be present when He is honored by praise. The bible also says that in God's presence is the "fullness of Joy" and once you're in it there is no sorrow aka crying. Long story short, after almost ten minutes of persistent praising, I knew God's presence was filling the room when little man stopped crying, walked over to me on my knees and wanted me to pick him up.

As soon as I did, I began to walk around the room (still praising God) and my boy was as peaceful as anyone could be with his head on my shoulder, not sleeping, but resting in God's presence wide awake. Then I had what I call a "God Moment".

Out of nowhere, as I'm walking around the room, I get this overwhelming feeling of how pure my son is in the eyes of the Lord and at the same time how full of sin I really am. I know God's love for me is unconditional and His Grace covers me, but for some reason I felt His love for my son and I began to cry. Baby Paper's tears stopped and mine began. Then I just began to thank God for my son and for all of the amazing things he's going to do throughout his life. I also began to ask the Lord for forgiveness for the areas of my life that I struggle in.

In His presence, I felt His forgiveness (once again) touch me in such a way that I could never deny that God isn't real. He is. You can't describe it. I could try but ultimately it has to be you experiencing it for yourself. I found that as my tears fell, so did God's reassurance that not only does He love my son, but He loves me just as much. It's amazing how God shows up in such unique ways and at times you'd never expect Him too. He's cool like that.

And just so you know, lil' man took his nap after that. Thanks for reading.

Dare 2 Move,

jp

Phil 4:13