From the heart of a fifth grader...

One of my fifth grade boys came up to me yesterday and presented me with a silvery, metal-covered journal. "Mr. Hays, this is a prayer journal that I started over the summer. Would you like to read through it?" he asked.

"Absolutely!" I responded. In talking with him about it today before recess, he said that over the summer he would often wake up really early and didn't know what to do with his time, so he would either read his Bible or write in this prayer journal. I was so impressed! This is the same student who told me that he has already chosen 1 Thessalonians 5:17 - "pray continually" - as his life verse.

I've been amazed at the maturity of these kids. Their questions, their observations, their insights into the kingdom of God and the world around them are truly an inspiration to me.

Here are a few of the short entries that were in my fifth grader's prayer journal (all spelling mistakes have been included intentionally):

Why is God and Jesus important?

God was willing to give up his only son to save our sins. He let his own son die just so you and me could go see God up in heaven. If you had one son would you let your son die for people that you don't even know?

Be careful!

You need to be careful because Satan will always try to do everything he can to break up realashinships. But don't let him do that. God wants everyone of us to be up in heaven with him some day. But Satan will try his hardest to make us forget about the most important things.

Satan

Satan was once an angel in heaven with God. But Satan wanted to be like God. God didn't like that. So he sent him down from heaven. God sent Satan so far away that nobody on the face of the earth know's were he is.

I hope these words are as much a blessing to you as they are to me!